This program includes illustrations generated with AI tools.

[Banjo music] Funding for the production of Law for a Lawless Land, provided by the U.S.

District Court of New Mexico.

Bench and Bar Fund.

[Banjo music] >> Narrator: The Taos Revolt on January 19th, 1847 was a bloody battle against American conquest.

Joab Houghton and Charles Beaubien, newly appointed American justices, found themselves at a pivotal moment in American history.

The first U.S.

Governor of New Mexico, Charles Bent, was brutally murdered, along with Justice Bobby and Son, and the county sheriff, a probate judge, an American attorney, and some 20 others in Arroyo Hondo and Mora.

>> Hutton: The people of Taos had never submitted to domination by any outside forces, whether it was the Navajos or the Apaches or other Pueblo people, whether it was the Spanish, whether it was the Mexicans.

And they certainly were not going to submit to domination by the Americans.

>> Narrator: Presiding over the trials in the newly established New Mexico Territory Superior Court, the judges faced an extraordinarily complicated task, to administer justice to the trial, demanding an understanding of ancient native community traditions and over 200 years of Spanish culture.

The trials demonstrated the newly acquired territory of New Mexico, a result of the Mexican-American War, brought formidable challenges.

One of the first actions of the American legal system here.

American justice itself, was on trial.

[Guitar strumming] >> Hutton: We'll be in and out and face an almost impossible task.

It's like they've just been dropped into this furious maelstrom, and now they have to sit in judgment, sit in judgment on 16 men charged with murder, five charged with treason.

And of course, they don't even know how to define treason.

>> Narrator: Justices Houghton and Beaubien were the vanguard of 60 judges appointed in New Mexico over the following chaotic decades, whose efforts would be instrumental in deciding the fate of New Mexico's uncertain future.

Their extraordinary challenges were just beginning.

>> Hutton: Well this first test of American justice is going to require considerable improvization.

[Western folk music] >> Narrator: Traveling from Santa Fe, Colonel Price's forces 400 strong, defeated the rebels at Embudo Pass and then breached the walls of the Taos Pueblo church, crushing the rebellion.

About 150 rebels were killed at the battle, and more were captured.

>> Gardner: There was a feeling of outrage among the Americans in Santa Fe.

This march north, It wasn't about just putting down another army or another force.

It was about vengeance.

>> Narrator: Several rebel leaders were court martialed and promptly hanged in Taos Plaza.

A civil court was set up to try other rebel.

In the Taos trials, Justice Charles Beaubien presided.

Chief Justice Houghton joined these cases because of the obvious conflict of interest.

Beaubien's son being one of the murdered.

>> Johnson: When you go back to the early territorial days in 1846, you had judges who were not trained in the law, and you had really very little, you know, precedent that they could go by.

>> Hutton: Lewis Garrard, a visitor to Taos, left us an eyewitness account of the trials.

He wrote.

“It certainly did appear to be a great assumption on the part of the Americans to conquer a country and then arrange the revolting inhabitants for treason.

American judges sat on the bench.

New Mexicans and Americans filled the jury box, and an American soldiery guarded the halls.

Verily, a strange mixture of violence and justice.

A strange middle ground between the marshal and common law.” >> Narrator: Rebel leaders were sent to Santa Fe soon after opening the first American court there on December 1st, 1846.

Chief Justice Houghton dealt with the 1847 plot to overthrow the new regime.

A high level member of the Taos Revolt leadership, Antonio Maria Trujillo was arraigned before a Santa Fe grand jury.

>> Hutton: Trujillo is one of the most distinguished, one of the most respected members of the Hispanic community.

Everyone admired him, including the Americans who were actually putting him on trial.

But there was no question about his guilt.

[Fiddle music] >> Narrator: Chief Justice Houghton pronounced the sentence A jury of 12 citizens, after a patient and careful investigation pending, which all the safeguards of the law have been afforded you... have been compelled from the evidence brought before them to find you guilty of treason against the government under which you are a citizen.

>> Gardner: It stems from the fact that General Stephen Watts Kearny had overstepped his authority by making New Mexicans citizens.

Houghton sentenced Trujillo to death by hanging, but then surprisingly delayed the execution, so a petition for clemency signed by him.

Prosecuting attorney Blair, most of the jury members and other prominent citizens could be set to Washington.

President Polk responded that he had no authority to pardon Trujillo since the prisoner was not a citizen of the United States.

He suggested that the acting New Mexico governor grant a pardon, which governor Donaciano Vigil promptly did.

>> Vázquez: There was the view that this man was caught in the middle of being a resident of this land that had only known two flags in over three centuries, and all of a sudden he's a traitor for trying to protect his land, protect his home.

When it is clear that the atmosphere is one of utter confusion.

>> Narrator: The legal interpretation of treason came too late for the rebels held for trial in Taos.

>> Gonzales: Do you have a judge and a member of the jury who are family members of one of the people who was killed as a result of that rebellion?

>> That's just incomprehensible under today's, you know, standards that are applicable to trials and judges.

>> Narrator: Witnesses of Governor Bent's murder Maria Ignacia Jaramillo Bent, her sister Josepha Jaramillo Carson, and Rumalda Luna Boggs sat facing the accused.

The foreman of the jury was the dead governor's brother George, and the court interpreter was his business partner, Ceran St.

Vrain.

Lucien Maxwell Justice Beaubien son in law, was on the jury.

After a few minutes, the jury returned with the verdict guilty in the first degree, five for murder, one for treason.

Who at the execution cried in innocence.

[Western folk music] >> Hutton: “Treason, indeed.

What did the poor devil know about his new allegiance?” >> Narrator: When beaubien pronounced “muerto, muerto muerto” in a solemn and impressive manner, a painful stillness reigned in the courtroom.

>> Hutton: “I left the room sick at heart.

Justice out upon the word.

When it's distorted meaning is the warrant for murdering those who defend to the last their country and their homes.” [Spanish guitar music] >> Gonzales: The way I see the early days of the New Mexico Territory was really a clash, not only of culture, but of legal systems.

Where before the Americans moved into this area, the native population and the Mexican population really looked to their community leaders to resolve personal disputes?

Looking to people such as the alcalde A or the mayor or the village leader, and these disputes being handled on a very informal basis, where the result was something really for fairness and equity.

And that might have been the objective of the Americans to bring some kind of predictable system to resolve disputes and keep the peace.

But in the application of this new system, it wasn't delivered quite that way.

And we saw the result of that in Taos.

[Hand drumming and singing] >> Narrator: Imposing American law onto native communities was yet another challenge the judges faced.

[Hand drumming and singing >> Melton: The indigenous justic that existed pre-contact were really based on principles of love and care.

Everything was a communal approach.

No one was excluded and there was representation.

There was notice about what was happening, and people were surrounded by people invested in them.

People who knew them, people who raised them.

[Western Folk Music] when you have that kind of process you have a lot of resources, a lot of people looking at the same center of what went wrong.

If it was a person that was harmed, or if it's the person who did the wrongdoing.

And so there were so much more investment and getting to the causal factors, that's what that indigenous system looked like.

You could correct behavior, and if you did that, then you got to the root cause, which allows us to live peaceably with one another.

And those condominiums that we invented.

>> Narrator: With the compromise New Mexico officially became a territory.

>> Armijo: Kirby Benedict was very interesting Gentlemen.

Many have made fun of him because of his addiction to alcohol, and he was often described as being rude when he was on the bench.

But a good deal of this criticism came in the heat of political turmoil, with other judges and with politicians in the territory.

>> Narrator: Connecticut born lawyer Kirby Benedict proved critical to the establishment of the territorial court, and its tone.

>> Armijo: He really began his legal career in the state of Illinois and met and became good friends with one Abraham Lincoln.

They wrote circuit together.

>> Narrator: Traveling the eighth Judicial Circuit, they ate together in crowded taverns and shared cramped quarters in boarding houses, all for $250 a year.

They became fast friends.

>> Hutton: In a lot of ways.

Kirby Benedict was the perfect judge, someone who understood the law, who wanted to apply the rule of law.

But understood it had to be tempered with compassion.

>> Narrator: Benedict labored on the circuit while his friends Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, advanced to Washington.

Douglas, as senator and Lincoln as congressman.

These rising stars didn't forget their old friend.

And in 1853, the Illinois congressional delegation helped secure a territorial judgeship for Benedict in the far flung Third Judicial District of New Mexico.

New Mexico Territory was divided into three districts one judge per district.

The three judges also acted as the Supreme Court, which led to the often confrontational situation of sitting in judgment of their colleagues.

Rulings.

A fourth district added in 1887 and a fifth in 1890.

In all, 60 judges would serve on the territorial bench between 1846 and 1912.

>> Armijo: For so many years during the territorial period, there was a what I would call a revolving door of political appointees, many of whom were never trained in the law, and several of whom left after 1 or 2 years.

Benedict remained in New Mexico.

He was very courageous.

This is a man who spoke out early on against the practice of peonage.

Master servant.

He opposed secession.

He committed himself to meet every deadline he could with respect to court appearances.

Travel took days, but he met during his terms of court.

All of his appearances, except for the time that Santa Fe was under the control of the Confederacy.

He was a man who was responsible.

Those traits, suggested the kind of judge that was important, to development of the law in the territory of New Mexico, and certainly what we know.

As a result of that.

>> Narrator: No sooner had Benedict arrived than he found himself involved in a highly publicized murder trial.

In 1854, Richard Whiteman stabbed to death Francois Aubry.

>> Gardner: Francois Aubry probably was other than Kit Carson, the most famous New Mexican in the late 1840s early 1850s.

He was probably most famous for breaking the land speed record between Independence and Santa Fe.

>> Narrator: Aubrey's death caused an outpouring of grief and considerable reaction.

>> Gardner: Well, there was a dispute between Whiteman and Aubrey over a planned route for a railroad to the Pacific.

While Aubrey was out of town.

Whiteman went back and criticized Aubrey.

And so when Aubrey arrives in Santa Fe, he wants to talk to Whiteman.

>> Narrator: Aubrey called Whiteman a liar, to which he responded by throwing a glass of whiskey into Aubrey's face.

As Aubrey drew his revolver.

Whiteman stabbed him with a Bowie knife.

>> Vazquez: The violence in the community was explained to the jury in that particular case as a matter of self-defense.

And that's basically what the judge told the jury.

>> Gardner: He provoked Aubrey.

Now, Aubrey did pull a revolver.

The question is, did Whiteman really fear for his life?

Anything that the judge says to a jury is extremely persuasive and influential.

>> Narrator: After an hour of deliberation.

Jury foreman Vincente Garcia read the verdict of not guilty in Spanish.

This judgment caused considerable backlash, and Whiteman hastily returned to Missouri.

Judge Benedict was regarded as a serious jurist by his peers and a man of strong convictions.

>> Hutton: Kirby Benedict was horrified by what he found in New Mexico with peonage not only of Native American people, but also Hispanics that were tied to the land through debt peonage.

>> Melton: Judge Benedict's efforts to address peonage was a real noble thing to do.

>> Hutton: He worked all during his years in New Mexico against this It was kind of a futile effort because peonage was going to continue in New Mexico long after the 13th amendment outlawed slavery in the United States.

It would be the 1880s before it was finally eradicated.

>> Narrator: In Leonardo versus territory.

Benedict confronted an enormous obstacle.

>> Armijo: What he said was that where there is a misinterpretation of a statute, where that statute has its origins in the Spanish law, you must look to the original as the source.

>> Hutton: The Mexican people are not to lose the benefit of their laws enacted in their own tongue, because the translation is done injustice.

Because those who occupied judicial seats may not be versed in the Spanish idiom.

>> Armijo: Benedict was a man who was fluent in Spanish.

He had studied Spanish, and I think that gave him the ability to really see beyond the very superficial level of an issue and dig a little deeper.

And really, in this case, through his special concurring opinion, educate his colleagues.

>> Narrator: Benedict's colleague, Judge Perry Bronchus, was also sensitive to legal history.

>> Armijo: The case of Chavez versus McKnight and Gutierrez is significant.

She had inherited, through her family, a great amount of property and the sum of $30,000.

And under the custom in the laws at the time, woman had no ability to control their property.

It was controlled by the husband once they entered into the marital relationship.

Her husband, Mr.

Gutierrez, squandered away most of the money and property.

And he was indebted to Mr.

McKnight, who sought to foreclose.

And she sought to protect her property.

It was a very, very important case that established the rights of women in limited circumstances, but nonetheless recognized the tracing of the right through Spanish law, that that right existed, and that gave tremendous recognition to the interests of women and the rights that needed to be protected.

>>Narrator: In spring 1861, Benedict faced a tragic and unprecedented case in Las Vegas.

Paula Angel was found guilty of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of her lover, Miguel Martin.

When called before the bench, Angel refused to speak up.

>>Vazquez: She just stood there and she didn't offer any proof, didn't offer any defenses and said nothing at her sentencing.

And he ordered her executed.

That's what struck me about that case.

>>Armijo: Upon a finding of guilt, her attorney sought an appeal, and Judge Benedict granted her an appeal, but he refused the request to stay her execution.

Unjust, as we look back, but that was the law of the time.

And we have, perhaps a year or two later, an automatic stay that's imposed, in murder cases.

>> Narrator: In anguish, Benedict ordered she be taken one mile from Las Vegas, to be hung.

>>Armijo: Women, of course, we know, we're not allowed to serve on juries.

And so, women in the territorial years had so very little ability to assert their interests in important matters.

The lessons from this case, and it's a story that I think is important to be told, that she was the only female put to death during territorial or modern New Mexico.

It came at a time where I think society was loathed to prosecute women.

Yet, this woman is prosecuted to the greatest extent of the law of the time.

And perhaps it raised in the consciousness of some citizens with political savvy that there's an injustice here that has to be corrected.

>>Narrator: Benedict's distress over sentencing Paula Angel was out of character.

>>Hutton: Kirby Benedict's unconventional ruling from the bench when sentencing a murderer to death became famous throughout the entire West.

Here's what he said, [Hutton Reading] “Jose Maria Martin, you have been indicted, tried and convicted by a jury of your countrymen of the crime of murder, and the court is now about to pass upon you the dread sentence of the law.

[Hutton Continues Reading] “The flowers will not bloom for you, Jose Maria Martin; the birds will not carol for you, Jose Maria Martin.

When these things come to gladden the senses of men, you will be occupying a space about six by two beneath the sod, and the green grass and those beautiful flowers will be growing above your lowly hand.” Well, Jose Maria Martin did live to see the flowers bloom and the birds sing, because he promptly escaped from the Taos jail and was never seen again.

>> Narrator: In yet, another highly celebrated and unusual case, Judge Benedict displayed considerable cultural sensitivity in a bitter dispute over a revered painting of San Jose hanging for many years in the Acoma Mission Church, Laguna elders declared the painting to be a gift during the Spanish conquest and was stolen.

Church authorities ruled the painting belonged to Acoma, but Laguna refused to return it.

>>Browning: The lawlessness out here and the bloodshed that was taking place, here, you had an incident where you had a neutral arbitrator from the United States deciding a dispute between two Pueblos and-- it was followed, >>Narrator: Judge Benedict ruled: >>Hutton: “This cherished object of their long line of ancestry, this court permanently restores to the Acomas and by this decree confirms to them and throws around them the shield of the law's protection.

[Bluegrass Music] >>Narrator: When his old friend, Abraham Lincoln was elected President, Benedict sent him a letter of congratulation and didn't miss the opportunity to request re-appointment.

[Hutton Reading] “As a judicial officer, I have striven to keep myself apart from the parties or factions that sometimes rage mid this people.

I've learned the language so that I seldom need the assistance of an interpreter.

I have studied the Spanish and Mexican laws and the character of this people I've held court in all parts of this territory, and I see no evidence that I have not the full confidence of the people.” >>Narrator: He was reappointed as Chief Justice.

>>Vazquez: The efforts that he and other judges made to give importance to the words that were spoken by people who lived in this area before they became a territory, was extremely inclusive, open minded, fair.

That openness, that spirit is what gave birth to our judiciary in New Mexico.

[Western Folk Music] >>Narrator: Military rule returned in 1861 with the outbreak of the Civil War.

Oftentimes brilliant but a self-righteous tyrant, the 47 year old Brigadier General James Carlton saw 20 years of rugged frontier service much of it in New Mexico.

He quickly imposed military rule and broke no interference.

>>Browning: We had to wrest control from him, and I think Kirby Benedict saw early on that while he was a fan of the victories that Carlton had against the Confederacy, he began to realize that he had somebody that was too despotic and autocratic, and he needed a check on his powers and authority.

>>Narrator: Associate Judge Joseph Knapp of the third district opened a campaign of constant invective against Carlton over the passport requirement.

Carlton threw Knapp in the guardhouse.

>>Hutton: Knapp challenged Carlson's authority, and he also challenged him on the question of the Navajo War.

He was unhappy with how belligerent Carleton was being toward the Navajos, how he wouldn't negotiate with them at all, and then finally, Kirby Benedict was brought in.

Benedict joined with Knapp, in the criticism of Carleton, that went nowhere in Washington.

The Civil War is raging.

The generals were supported.

>>Narrator: Benedict contested Carlton's abuses of power, especially in criticizing the horrid conditions that the Navajo prisoners faced at Bosque Redondo.

Carleton accused him of being a drunkard and requested his dismissal.

>>Browning: Lincoln had a good assessment as a good lawyer himself-- Benedict's ability and he knew that a lot of the charges against Benedict were quite correct.

He knew he drank a lot, but he also knew that he was a very good lawyer and a very good judge.

>>Narrator: Lincoln's response has become legend.

“Well, gentlemen, I know Benedict.

We have been friends for over 30 years.

He may imbibe to excess, but Benedict drunk, knows more law than all the others on the bench in New Mexico sober.

I shall not disturb him.” >>Hutton: The man who really did Kirby Benedict in was John Wilkes Booth.

>>Narrator: After Lincoln's assassination, the campaign to remove Benedict accelerated, besieged by complaints from General Carlton and other conspirators about Benedict's drinking, President Andrew Johnson ignored a petition from the territorial legislature praising Benedict, denying his reappointment.

Carleton did not savor this victory for long.

Within a few months, he was removed as military commander over his failure to cooperate with civil authorities, as well as the catastrophe that was Bosque Redondo.

>>Johnson: Fortunately, judges today there is the importance of judicial independence remains, and there's a lot more respect for the separation of powers to where the executive branch does not control the judicial branch, and vice versa.

[Western Folk Music] >>Browning: Even if there was law, there wasn't anybody to enforce it.

[Western Folk Music] >>Hutton: American justice in New Mexico was still a little rough around the edges as the territory drifted into chaos after the Civil War.

>>Narrator: Benedict's replacement, Chief Justice John P. Slough, did not preside over the courts for long.

>>Browning: Slough was very important in New Mexico.

He was at Glorieta.

He had brought the Colorado Volunteers down, defeated the Confederacy.

But he wasn't a nice guy.

He had enemies.

>>Narrator: One of his first acts upon reaching Santa Fe was to lead fundraising to erect on the plaza a monument to the Union soldiers who defended New Mexico during the Civil War.

He presided over the controversial case in Heredia vs Garcia in February 1867, where he struck down peonage.

A champion of the recently ratified 13th Amendment, he brought a new level of justice to the territory.

His ruling angered many prominent New Mexicans, who relied on the peonage system for cheap labor.

In July 1867 in another controversial ruling, Slough declared the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico to be citizens of the Republic under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, since they were not Indian tribes under the federal definition.

Because of their civilized behavior, he declared they were not wards of the government, but instead retained all the rights of citizenship, which included the right to vote.

His ruling in the United States vs Benigo Ortiz delighted many New Mexicans as they allowed the sale of Cochiti Pueblo land to non-Indians, but were horrified, the opportunity to vote was now extended to the Pueblo people.

>>Gonzales: I think that's another example of where you have a clash of systems, the struggle, I think of the judges in the 1860s and 1870s was trying to bring about some sense between this new system of American law and what were the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo.

was a preservation of rights from Spain and Mexico, and in good faith they tried to do that, but in some ways, with very consequential results for the Pueblo Indians.

>>Melton: The citizenship cases were decided without consultation with the tribes.

In the case, they were talking about the land.

But when you ask somebody, do you want to be a citizen of my country?

You're asking them to be like you, being communal, we did a lot of sharing.

We lived together.

We shared food together.

We hunted together.

We planted together.

And so to have individual lots was not the way to go.

So, I think it was a very-- major conflict.

>>Nararrator: The Cochiti ruling was upheld by subsequent cases and led to a land grab from the Pueblos by non-Indians.

>>Gonzales: The other unfortunate result of that was the idea of taxation on the same property taxes on property, especially retroactive.

There's going to be a significant burden, and it took decades, congressional action and ultimately the Supreme Court reversing some of its own decisions to untangle that knot.

And we're still living with the results.

>>Narrator: The Pueblos had to give up citizenship, seeking protections with the Enabling Act of 1910, and didn't gain citizenship again until 1924.

With all other tribes in the US.

The controversial rulings on peonage and citizenship, as well as Slough, a high handed, ardent and zealous democrat known for his often vicious behavior, led to a movement to remove him from office.

Hotheaded and manipulated by Santa Fe politicals, Republican territorial legislator William Rynerson introduced a resolution to censure Slough for unprofessional conduct.

An intense man of elastic ethics, Ryerson had risen rapidly in local politics.

Infuriated by Ryerson's slander, Slough quietly hurled insults at him while he played billiards at Santa Fe's popular Exchange Hotel.

Now the site of the Lafonda Hotel.

Witnesses later claimed he denounced Ryerson in the most offensive terms, was taunting, contemptuous and defiant, and called him a thief and coward, saying “the scoundrel hasn't courage to take it up.” The next day, after angrily pacing for hours outside The Exchange, Rynerson found Slough and confronted him, demanding he take it back and drew a revolver.

Slough exclaimed, “Shoot and be damned!” Rynerson promptly shot the Chief Justice.

Slough may or may not have pulled a derringer from his pocket.

>>Hutton: This is violence amongst the highest level of New Mexico government.

I think it probably made future judges sort of nervous.

>>Browning: On a personal level, it's kind of brave.

But on the other hand somebody pointing a gun at you, you don't usually invite them to shoot you.

So, it was a just a remarkable incident.

>>Narrator: In the controversial, highly publicized trial that followed, Judge Perry Brocchus' instructions to the jury essentially held that if Slough slandered and threatened Rynerson, then the shooting was in self-defense.

>>Johnson: It's hard to imagine how that case was tried, and how the jury would come up with a justifiable homicide or a self-defense verdict, when it's pretty clear that, Judge Slough was was murdered.

>>Narrator: The jury promptly acquitted Rynerson.

>>Hutton: Many commentators have suggested that this is the begin of the infamous Santa Fe Ring.

And, of course, Rynerson was a key player.

>>Narrator: A nebulous coalition of Republican politicians and businessmen, The Ring aggressively sought control of the territory for their own benefit, and in 1876, Rynerson was appointed District Attorney for the Third District.

This directly involved him in the Lincoln County War, where his partisan behavior in support of the interest of The Ring undermined the credibility of the courts.

>>Gardner: In the 19th Century, New Mexico, it wasn't really about justice, it wasn't really about what was right or wrong.

It was about whose side you were on and who could pull out a gun quickest.

>>Hutton: Nobody seemed to be able to get along in New Mexico.

Even the judges were quarreling.

The Chief Justice, John Watts, and Judge Perry Brocchus were so intense in their feud, and sent so many letters back to Washington that finally, President Ulysses S. Grant got exasperated.

He fired all the judges, and he sent a new group of judges.

>>Narrator: It was extremely difficult to get able judges to serve because of the isolation of the territory.

The railroad didn't reach Santa Fe until 1880, and the salary was a paltry $3,000 a year.

>>Vazquez: And it was difficult to find anybody to want to come here and to act as a judge at a time when people were being shot, for doing what they were doing.

And that is attempting to resolve disputes.

>>Narrartor: Between 1869 and 1872 five different judges presided over the particularly lawless Third District, only Warren Bristol stayed on.

He presided from 1872 to 1884, and became famous as the judge who sentenced Billy the Kid to hang in 1881, The Kid infamously escaped from the Lincoln County Jail before he could be executed killing two deputies, only to be tracked down and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett at Old Fort Sumner.

>>Narrator: As the Lincoln County War and Billy the Kid grabbed national headlines and the equally deadly conflict arose in Colfax County over the Maxwell Land Grant, a complex history of land development that escalated quickly.

>>Browning: Uncontrollable violence is really what was going on up there.

>>Narrator: Lucien Maxwell sold the vast land grant he inherited from Charles Beaubien to the English-financed, Maxwell Land Grant and Railroad Company.

Maxwell had allowed settlers, be they Hispanics, Anglos, Utes or Jicarilla Apaches.

But the land company was not so benevolent.

The company, backed by the Santa Fe Ring, began to systematically evict long-term residents.

In March 1873, the settlers or squatters, as the company called them armed themselves to resist, and violence ensued.

>>Johnson: I think there's a lot of injustice.

Maybe you could call it Gunsmoke justice.

But the rule of law was non-existent during that period where the Santa Fe Ring and those that were trying to control the land, the mining rights cattle, were really -- they were hired guns.

And, it was hard for the victims oftentimes, settlers, people who'd lived in farm that land for years if they stood up to the hired guns of the Santa Fe Ring, you know, they were they were killed.

And it was hard for the victims to receive justice.

>>Narrator: An ally of the settlers, the Reverend Franklin Tolby wrote a scathing article for the New York Sun on July 5th, 1875, accusing the Santa Fe Ring of being, many-headed monster, guilty of supporting the land company against the people.

>>Hutton: Tolby was right.

He was also soon dead, shot in the back, that September in Cimarron Canyon.

>>Browning: Stories about the West were just loved by the East Coast.

So you get a story, a preacher coming back and telling all these things are going on with the Santa Fe Ring and those sort of things.

That was good press, and it got a lot of publicity.

And not surprising the people who kill people targeted him.

He was a political rival.

He was a threat to them.

He was going East Coast.

He was going public.

He was just a marked man.

>>Narrator: Tolby's suspected killer, Cruz Vega, a notorious gunman and sometimes constable, was found dangling from a telegraph pole about a mile and a half north of Cimarron.

>>Gardner: They find out that just for one day, the postmaster was assigned Cruz Vega to be, the postman on this delivery route.

>>Narrator: It started a party led by Texas gunfighter Clay Allison, who was the one out for justice and killed another company gunman in a shootout in Cimarron.

Saint James Hotel had tortured and lynched Vega.

Manuel Cardenas confessed to Toby's murder and was killed before he could be brought to trial.

Company goons retaliated, and the violence became so widespread that Governor Axtell requested federal troops be brought in.

At least 100 men were killed.

>>Hutton: Clay Allison's role in the Colfax County War is really remarkable.

He just rides out of the mountains, and he.

And he comes in, and he takes up the cause of the poor settlers against the machinations of the Santa Fe ring and the big British landowners.

He's a totally admirable character, at least in this circumstance.

>>Browning: You know, the finger pointing, the accusations, the lies.

I mean, it was just part and parcel of what was going on up there.

There's nobody that's an arbiter of the truth.

It doesn't matter how good of a judiciary you have if you can't get the defendant or witnesses there safely, your system's not going to work.

>>Narrator: Governor Axtell suggested it would be useful if Allison could also be eliminated but he escaped back to Texas.

The violence played itself out while Colfax County smoldered.

Toby's murder was but one episode in the Reign of Terror that paralyzed the territory.

Appointed Chief Justice in 1876.

Henry Waldo's counteroffensive was to embolden in a grand jury To pursue prompt and energetic action on their part to clean up this artillery in the territory.

He continued, shootings and cuttings take place around us with the most impudent and outrageous defiance of law, one of our wisest and most valuable statutes that against the carrying of deadly weapons in settlements or plazas, remains practically a dead letter.

This is violated daily and hourly, and in numerous instances the remedy is at hand.

It needs, but the resolution to apply it is to be found in a prompt and vigorous execution of the laws.Let courts and people unite to this end.

Hopeful Justice Waldo lasted only two years.

It took three more tries to appoint someone who would stay in check the violence.

>> Gardner: No matter how many laws you pass in Santa Fe or Washington or the military issues orders, if there's not people to carry it out, people are going to start ignoring the laws, often with their guns.

>> Narrator: The rampant lawless nature of the territory drawn out contentious legal issues.

The revolving door of judges made it difficult to attract business and advance the cause of statehood.

Anxious to promote unity to a scattered but coalescing nation, in 1880, Rutherford B Hayes was the first to visit New Mexico.

Hayes removed Governor Samuel Axtell under a cloud of suspicion and replaced him with Lew Wallace in hopes of cleaning up the territory.

Wallace failed, although he was able to complete his novel Ben-Hur while in office.

[Western folk music] >>Narrator: Beyond the Veil of Gunsmoke Justice, The election of Grover Cleveland as president in 1884 led to wholesale changes in the New Mexico judiciary.

Cleveland appointed Hoosier Elijah Long.

>>Armijo: He was a man of integrity.

He was described by many as being probably the hardest working judge in the territory, based on the number of cases that he handled.

And of course, he took cases where other judges could not work them for whatever reasons.

There was an interesting case that came before him, territory versus Ash and Felter And this case involved the question of whether the governor could remove officials and territorial government summarily because they were not politically aligned with him.

Chief Justice Long soon found himself in direct conflict with fellow Democrat and new Governor Edmund Ross.

Ross attempted to purge the state of all Republican officeholders because their appointments were for fixed terms.

The judge decided against the Democratic governor, a thoughtful man, long mildly lectured Governor Ross, on the seperation of powers.

In territory versus Thomaston, the jury had difficulty deliberating.

Half only spoke Spanish, while the other half on the English Long set an important precedent by swearing in an interpreter.

The defense later claimed that no one could be allowed to communicate with the jury, not even the judge, after they retired.

Long dismissed this argument and that the burden was on the defendant.

to prove this prejudice.

The jury, >>Vasquez: The translation is so critically important and continues to be in the District of New Mexico where we have interpreted that have to be certified, and then they come into court speaking in tailor, speaking Navajo, speaking various dialects of the Mexican Spanish and many other languages, and they have to be certified so that we do everything we can to assure accuracy.

[Western Folk Music] >>Narrator: On February 1st, 1896 Civil War hero and leading New Mexico Republican politician Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain and his eight year old son Henry, vanished near White Sands while returning home to Murcia from Lincoln.

All that was found at the murder scene was a bloodstained buckboard, some papers, and the little boy's bandana.

[Desert ambience] >> Gonzalez: He was the lead prosecutor in Dona Ana County, and he was investigating various crimes including cattle rustling and was bringing charges by indictment.

>>Gardner: That was like breaking the code.

You don't kill a young boy who's innocent.

>> Narrator: Suspicion centered around ranchers Albert Bacon Fall and Oliver Lee, who were bitter rivals of the Colonel.

Fountain, had been in Lincoln to obtain warrants for cattle rustling against Lee and his cowboys.

Fall, who Fountain had recently defeated for the territorial legislature, was Lee's attorney.

>> Hutton: Judge Frank Parker, just after taking office, finds himself presiding over one of the most notoriously political cases ever held in the courts of New Mexico.

>> Narrator: Sheriff Pat Garrett led a posse after Lee and one of his cowboys, Jim Gilliland, in July 1898.

A gunfight ensued near Alamogordo in which one of Garrett's deputies was mortally wounded and the suspects escaped.

>> Gardner: Oliver Lee starts dictating how he's going to turn himself in.

He says, I am not going to spend a night in the jail of Pat Garrett.

I will not turn myself into Pat Garrett.

He might have actually been a little bit of afraid of Pat Garrett.

>> Narrator: Lee brazenly wrote a letter to the Las Cruces Independent Democrat claiming self-defense.

This outraged the editor of the El Paso Times in New Mexico, Oliver Lee, after killing an officer of the law, sends the papers a graphic description of the fight he made and tells why he will not be arrested by this or that officer.

And still, some people wonder why New Mexico is not admitted to statehood.

>> Browning: Pat Garrett was there and saw his deputy shot, so he saw the crime.

He didn't have to do an investigation.

He didn't have to rely on hearsay or witnesses or heard something took place over here.

He's there, he saw it.

>> Narrator: As Garrett's manhunt intensified, Lee and Gilliland surrendered.

Fall wanted them tried in the friendly confines of Otero County, where Lee was something of a folk hero.

But presiding judge Frank Parker moved the venue to Hillsboro.

90 witnesses were summoned to trial, practicing law in Dona Ana county for 17 years.

Knowing the people well, Judge Parker's first remark was, gentlemen, coming into the court will kindly leave their guns outside.

>> Johnson: Its very dangerous.

You know, the judges, you have to admire them because they risked their lives trying to apply the rule of law and see the justices and serve.

>> Hutton: When Garrett was on the stand, fall asked him, well, why did you wait so long to bring the case?

And he said, because you controlled the courts, which you said everything about what was going on in the territory at that time.

>> Narrator: Witnesses provided alibis for the accused, and fall was unrelenting about this being a case of political persecution.

It was nearly midnight.

The jury was out for seven minutes before returning a verdict of not guilty.

The gallery cheered.

>> Gardner: Oliver Lee as a friend and Albert Bacon Fall the Democrats, have some power there in southern New Mexico.

It's kind of seen in a way, as the forces opposed to the Santa Fe ring getting a victory, who lost out Virginia's fountain.

And as a little boy, they didn't get justice.

They were murdered.

>>Gonzales: I was encouraged, actually, to see, the steps that Judge Parker took, to bring about a fair proceeding.

And regardless of the result that the process itself and even his decision to relocate the trial to Hillsboro was a huge step in the right direction to establishing the rule of law and confidence in this new system of American justice.

>>Narrator : President Theodore Roosevelt appointed former Rough Rider George Curry as governor in 1907, in order to clean up corruption and territorial affairs to smooth the way for statehood.

The opposition in the Senate proved too strong even for Roosevelt.

A final burst of violence in New Mexico, which underscored its Wild West reputation, didn't help the cause for statehood.

Pat Garrett refused to give up after serving a 1901 appointment by President Roosevelt as El Paso customs collector, he returned to Tularosa.

Everyone knew he'd really come back to crack open the fountain case.

>>Gardner: There's lots of evidence that people wanted to put Pat Garrett out of the way.

He knew too much information.

He was probably still looking for evidence on the killers of the founds themselves.

>>Hutton: Pat Garrett won't give up on the fountain murder, and eventually this becomes embarrassing to important people.

So he's soon shot in the back on his ranch, and a local cowboy by the name of Wayne Brazel is the fall guy.

For this, everyone suspects that, Texas gunfighters had been brought in to do the hit, but Brazel was charged.

Albert Bacon falls his lawyer, and of course, he's acquitted on grounds of self-defense.

Looking back, you have to wonder, if the individuals selected to serve on those juries were really unbiased or if their defendants exerted more control over the jury trial process than than certainly they would today.

[Western Folk Music] >>Narrator: At long last, on January 6th, 1912, New Mexico was finally admitted to the Union.

On January 10th, members of the territorial Supreme Court gathered to terminate the court's existence.

US Deputy Marshal Ireno Chavez then declared, here you hear you, the Honorable Supreme Court of the Territory of New Mexico is adjourned.

Sine die.

Statehood signaled an end of an era.

Once a frontier bursting with raw energy, changed by locomotives, teacups, barbed wire, tumbleweeds, and a new rule of law.

New Mexico was now the Land of Enchantment.

The journey to statehood was a particularly violent, political erratic and tenuous path.

At the heart of this extraordinary challenge are the largely overlooked territorial judges, whose stories are as complicated as the times they lived.

[Western Folk Music] >> Browning: Despite all the foibles and flaws and these men that came out here, I think by and large they did have the motivation to bring good justice to New Mexico.

>> Narrator: Joab Houghton, who began this journey, died in 1876.

An engineer by trade, he designed plans for a new capital building, the designs repurposed for a federal courthouse, not completed until 1889 and still in use.

His spirit broken by forces he could not withstand, Kirby Benedict took more and more to the bottle for solace, which led to his suspension from the practice of law.

He appealed to the legislature for redress, but to no avail.

While walking down a Santa Fe street, Benedict died of a heart attack in 1874.

Pivotal to the railroads success and tempering its social impact, Henry L Waldo was honored with a coal mining town, was named after him.

Now a ghost town, a member of the new state Supreme Court, Frank Parker, would serve until his death in 1932.

A living connection between the frontier past and modern New Mexico.

[Western Folk Music] New Mexico Territory's judiciary would prove instrumental in deciding the fate of this storied land.

[Western Folk Music] >> Hutton: For 66 years, these judges from the East had come to this land that was so exotic, so foreign to them, and found a culture, a people, a landscape that they had to adjust to.

[western folk music] And the best of them adjusted to this, they improvise.

They made the law work under the peculiar circumstances of the territory of New Mexico.

And that was their really greatest achievement to bring the East to the west, but then to merge it so that west and east became part of the new America, the new America that was going to see New Mexico statehood in a new century.

[Western Folk Music] Funding for the production of Law for a Lawless Land provided by the U.S.

District Court of New Mexico Bench and Bar Fund.

This program includes illustrations generated with AI tools.