Mr. Ryan to Mr.
Gresham.
Legation of
the United States,
Mexico, April 4, 1893.
(Received April 12.)
No. 1209.]
Sir: Referring to Department’s No. 908, of March
10, 1893, and in continuation of my No. 1196, of the 22d of the same month,
I have the honor to transmit, herewith, copies of further correspondence
relative to the case of Edward Lycan, the American citizen recently
imprisoned at Guaymas, in the state of Sonora. It will be seen that the
decision of the supreme court of justice affirming the order of the lower
court, granting the writ of amparo entered in behalf
of Lycan, bears date of the 30th of last December, three days before the
date of my note first calling the attention of the foreign office to the
case.
Mr. Mariscal, in his note of the 29th ultimo, reiterates his information that
“Lycan is charged with having aided or led a band of men who sacked the
wrecked steamer Dora Bluhm” but according to the
decision of the supreme court of justice no charges of any kind were
preferred against the prisoner. Mr. Mariscal seems to think that Lycan’s
complaint “is unwarranted and inopportune,” but that view of it is not
shared by the supreme court, which determined that Lycan’s detention and
incarceration were without any warrant of law whatever.
In fairness, however, it should be added that the courts have acted in the
matter with gratifying expedition, which is all the more praiseworthy for
having been “without any pressure whatever.”
In his note of the 31st ultimo, accompanying the decision of the supreme
court, it will be observed that the minister for foreign relations remits
the prisoner to his “unrestricted right,” under the law, “to accuse the
authorities responsible therefor, before the proper tribunal, for the abuse
committed.”
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure 1 in No.
1209.—Translation.]
Señor Mariscal to
Mr. Ryan.
Department of Foreign Affairs,
Mexico, March 29,
1893.
Mr. Minister: I had the honor to receive your
excellency’s note dated the 22nd of the current month, informing me that
Mr. Edward Lycan had complained to the Department of State endeavoring
to show that his arrest at Guaymas was an arbitrary and unjust act, he
not having been charged with any offense, and your excellency had
received instructions from your Government to express the hope and
conviction that necessary measures would be instituted to the end that
any act of injustice perpetrated against the complainant might be
righted and that the party guilty of any abuse of authority or illegal
procedure in the case might be punished.
Upon the presentation of Lycan’s complaint, in an unofficial note of
January 2, and afterwards in a note of February 2, your excellency was
pleased to state to me
[Page 418]
that
immediately upon his arrest said Lycan applied for amparo; that, in consequence thereof, the act prayed against
was suspended, and that he (Lycan) was at once released; that being
rearrested and imprisoned, by order of the prefect at Guaymas, he was
once more liberated after some hours of confinement, and that the papers
relating to the writ of amparo have come to this
capital in order that the supreme court of justice may revise the action
had by the district judge of Sonora, who granted such protection by amparo. Besting, therefore, on the information
imparted to me by your excellency, I may state that, from the first,
Lycan was protected by the Federal tribunals, and so his complaint at
last is unwarranted and inopportune.
In my note of January 27 I advised your excellency that, according to the
information received that day by this department, Lycan is charged with
having aided or led a band of men who sacked the wrecked steamer Dora Bluhm, and I may add that subsequent
information bears this out. I await, however, data more ample and
detailed, requested from the governor of the state of Sinaloa, and as
soon as I receive the same I shall have the honor again of addressing
your legation.
Meanwhile I may be allowed to trust that your excellency will
communicate, if you have not already communicated, to the Department of
State the information I have furnished; at the same time stating to the
said Department that according to the confession of the complainant
himself his case has met notice, without delay and without any pressure
whatsoever, from one of the courts of Federal justice, and further that
as the matter is now in the supreme court, pending its decision thereon,
the executive has neither cause nor legal right to interfere.
It gratifies me, etc.,
[Inclosure 2 in No.
1209.—Translation.]
Señor Mariscal to
Mr. Ryan.
Department of Foreign Affairs,
Mexico, March 31,
1893.
Mr. Minister: Referring to the note of 29th
instant, which I had the honor of addressing to your excellency, in
reply to your own of the 22d instant, I submit copy of the decision, of
December 30 last, of the supreme court of justice, confirming, in all
its parts, the decision of the district court of the state of Sonora
granting to Mr. Edward Lycan the amparo he sought
as against his arrest under orders of the captain of the port of
Guaymas.
As your excellency will observe, when, on the 2d of January last, your
excellency called my attention to the complaint of the said party, he
had already received protection by amparo in both
tribunals; that, therefore, the justice accorded to him was promptly and
officially administered, leaving him, under the law, his unrestricted
right to accuse the authorities responsible therefor before the proper
tribunal for the abuse committed.
I beg, etc.,
[Inclosure to in closure 2 in No.
1209—Translation.]
Decree of Supreme Court, December 30,
1892.
Mexico, December 30,
1892.
Supreme Court of Justice of the United Mexican States, full
bench.
In view of the decision, fully advised, which the first supply judge of
the district court of Sonora rendered on the 20th of the current month
protecting, in accordance with fiscal procedure, the American citizen,
Edward Lycan, against the acts of the captain of the port at Guaymas,
who had ordered him to be detained in the public jail of the city in
virtue of a telegram from the chief of the customhouse at Aguiabampo,
without designating the offense for which he was indicted, by which
procedure the complainant considered violated in his person the
guaranties granted under article 16 of the Constitution.
Considering that as from the report of the authority designated it
appears that the petition transmitted by telegraph from the chief of the
customs district of Aguiabampo, acting as captain of the port, and which
did not set forth the motive for the arrest or any grounds therefor, but
which gave rise to the order of arrest of complain ant, an order not
emanating from any competent authority, nor based upon
[Page 419]
any subsequent warrant, though such
warrant was promised and had not yet been sent up to the date of the
decision of the lower court now under revision, considering, therefore,
that such precedents and omissions demonstrate palpably an infraction of
article 16 of the Constitution.
In view of these considerations, and in accordance with the
aforementioned article 16 of the Constitution of the Republic and the
law of December 14, 1882, the decision of the first supply judge of the
district of Sonora is confirmed, and hereby it is declared:
That the justice of the union protects and favors Edward Lycan against
the acts whereof he complains.
Return the reapers to the court of their origin, with copy of this
decision, the original whereof shall be duly archived.
Thus decreed by unanimity of votes by the president and magistrates of
the Supreme Court of Justice of the nation and signed.
- Felix Romero,
President.
- José Maria Lozano,
- Francisco Vaca,
- Eligio Ancona,
- Prudenciano Dorantes,
- José Maria Aguirre de la
Barrera,
- Eduardo Nouva,
- Frederico Sandoval,
- Antonio Falcon,
- Eduardo Ruiz,
Magistrates.
- Pablo Reyes Retana,
Secretary.
A true copy. Mexico, March 30, 1893.
Lic. Pablo Reyes
Retana,
Secretary.
