Arizona Republican

FOR SORTILLON,

His Friends Claim There Is Yet Hope, or at Least Another Chance for His Life.

The Ground on Which Demand for a New Trial Is Based.

It Is Claimed That the Court Erred In a Single Instruction Concerning the Testimony.

The friends of Jose Maria Sortillon, under sentence of death for causing the burial alive of his illegitimate babe by a Mohave squaw two years ago, believe that he will be given another chance for his life. The case is now in supreme court and may be decided at the reconvening of the court next Monday. A new trial is asked for on the ground that the court erred in instructing the jury with regard to the testimony of the defendant's brother-in-law, A. Frank, mayor of Yuma. It is alleged that the instruction on that point cautioned the jury to carefully weigh the testimony of this witness and consider the interest he might feel in the issue. The appellant's attorneys rely for an opinion by the court upon one given by the supreme court of California at the last January term. In that case of the People vs. Hertz, the lower court had instructed the jury to consider the relationship of two witnesses, daughters of the defendant, who was on trial for receiving stolen goods. In passing upon it the higher court said it unfavorably regarded any allusion from the bench to the testimony of even the defendant whose interest in the result was always supreme. It could not however, it said, sanction an elasticity of the practice which included the defendant's relatives and might as reasonably be extended so as to take in all his friends.