Mr. Romero to Mr. Gresham.
Washington, September 28, 1897.
Mr. Secretary: This legation, in its notes of July 17, 1893, and May 22, 1894, requested of your Department the extradition of Ines Ruiz, Jesus Guerra, and Juan Duque, guilty of the crimes of murder, robbery, arson, and plagio, committed in the town of San Ignacio, State of Tamaulipas, Mexico, on December 10, 1892. The appropriate judicial proceedings being held in the United States circuit court for the western district of Texas, Commissioner L, F. Price adjudged the evidence against Ruiz, Guerra, and Duque legally sufficient and valid, and that, being guilty of those crimes, they should be held as prisoners to await the determination of the President of the United States.
In its note of July 9, 1894, your Department informed this legation that Ines Ruiz and Jesus Guerra, having appealed to a court of the United States for a writ of habeas corpus, it considered itself compelled to postpone its decision regarding the request for the extradition of these persons until the court should decide upon this appeal. Judge Maxey, of the United States district court for the western district of Texas, granted the appeal for habeas corpus for Jesus Guerra, as well as for Ines Ruiz and Juan Duque, but this decision having been appealed from the Supreme Court of the United States, the latter tribunal, by its decision of March 16, 1896, reversed that of Judge Maxey on the ground that Commissioner Price having had jurisdiction there was no room for an appeal for habeas corpus, for which cause your Department on the 9th of July, 1896, ordered the surrender of Ines Ruiz and Juan Duque.
Having received this day notice that Sheriff Shely, of Starr County, Tex., has apprehended Jesus Guerra and handed him over to the United States marshal, and the legal requirements relating to the extradition of this person and his surrender to the Mexican authorities according to the treaty of extradition between the two countries having been all fulfilled before Commissioner Price, I beg you to be pleased to obtain and transmit the necessary warrant for the surrender by the respective functionaries of this country of Jesus Guerra.
Be pleased to accept, etc.,