Judge Michael G. Sullivan

Third Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Michael G. Sullivan, 68, died Tuesday, December 29, 2009. Judge Sullivan earned his BA from Spring Hill College in 1964. He served in the U.S. Army as a Thai translator/advisor in N.E. Thailand from 1966-69. Following his graduation from Loyola University School of Law in 1973 he was in the general practice of law until 1983 and was first elected to the bench as a judge of the City Court of Lafayette in October of that year. He was reelected without opposition in 1985 and 1991. He was elected to serve on the Third Circuit Court of Appeal beginning in 1995. He was a member of the Judicial Administration Division Traffic Court Committee and the Committee of Ethics and Judicial Responsibility of The American Bar Association. He also served as vice president of the Louisiana City Judges Association. Third Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Michael G. Sullivan

This man was one among those whom I admired most.  He was a quiet force of nature.  From his office drawer, he showed me a document that he kept and read every now and again.  Here is what it read:

DEATH SENTENCE (1881)

The following is a verbatim sentence imposed upon a defendant convicted of murder in the Federal District Court of the Territory of New Mexico many years ago by a United States Judge, sitting at Taos in an adobe stable used as a temporary courtroom.

~~~o~~~

"Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, in a few short weeks, it will be spring. The snows of winter will flee away, the ice will vanish, and the annual miracle of the years will awaken and come to pass, but you won't be there.

"The rivulet will run its course to the sea, the timid desert flowers will put forth their tender shoots, the glorious valleys of this imperial domain will blossom as the rose. Still, you won't be there to see.

"From every treetop some wild woods songster will carol his mating song, butterflies will sport in the sunshine, the busy bee will hum happy as it pursues its accustomed vocation. The gentle breeze will tease the tassels of the wild grasses, and all nature, Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, will be glad, but you.

"You won't be there to enjoy it because I command the sheriff, or some officers of the country, to lead you out to some remote spot, swing you by the neck from a knotting bough of a sturdy oak, and let you hang until you are dead.

"And then, Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, I further command that such officer or officers retire quickly from your dangling corpse, that vultures may descend from the heavens upon your filthy body until nothing shall remain but the bare bleached bones of a cold-blooded, copper-colored, blood-thirsty, throat-cutting, chili-eating, sheep-herding, murdering son-of-a-bitch."

~~~o~~~

United States of America v. Gonzales (1881)
United States District Court, New Mexico Territory sessions