if there be none, the general principles of the law,' and," continued the Assessor, "a general principle of law is that the author of a damage must indemnify for the damage caused, therefore you must accept the solution I propose, that is, to condemn him to pay all the losses and damages occasioned by the fires, looting and destruction of means of communication, all his property remaining attached to pay the amounts as they will be established each in its day."
This is a fair sample of the casuistry shown by the prosecution throughout the trial. The application which he makes of the Civil to the Penal Code is such an innovation in matters juridical that had such a thesis been presented by a student before the tribunal of examiners, instead of by the Assessor before a tribunal composed of officers ignorant of jurisprudence, it would have caused a sensation, to say the least.[1]
To summarize: We see that the trial was conducted within the strict letter of the law, but patently against the spirit of the law, and in many cases by doing violence to the letter and distorting the meaning of the text. We see also that Francisco Ferrer was convicted on evidence which would have been rejected as insufficient by any ordinary tribunal in a civilized country. In one word, and to use a vulgar expression, the Ferrer trial was railroaded through.
After carefully studying the Ferrer trial, one does not know whether to be more saddened by the human tragedy or the legal comedy it presents. It makes one reflect upon what a farce justice may be turned into, under clerical bourgeois rule.
Simarro concludes his work, saying, "Only children,
- ↑ In regard to this "restoring of the feudal principle of corruption of blood," read the editorial, "Porfirlo Diaz," in the Dally People of November 26, 1910.
