Appellants were indicted at the June, A. D. 1894, term of the district court for the county of Santa F e, N. M., in the First judicial district of that territory, for the murder of one Francisco Chaves. On the 4th of March A. D. 1895, Hon. N. B. Laughlin, associate justice of the supreme court of the territory of New Mexico, assigned to the First judicial district thereof,-the regular December term of the court not having been held,-convened 'a special term of the district court for the county of Santa F e in and for the First judicial district in and for the territory of New Mexico,' to be begun on March 18, 1895, 'for the term of four consecutive weeks, and for such further time as in the discretion of the judge of said court may be deemed proper and necessary for the disposition of any business now pending in said court, or that may come before it in the usual course of business of said court, and as provided by law.'
The indictment coming on for trial, April 23, 1895, the following order was entered:
'Now comes the said plaintiff, by her attorney, J. H. Crist, Esquire, and the said defendants come in their own proper person, attended by their counsel, Catron & Spiess, and the judge of the court, Honorable N. B. Laughlin, considering himself disqualified from presiding at the trial of this cause, owing to the fact of his having been connected with the prosecution herein previous to his appointment as judge, resigns the bench to the Honorable H. B. Hamilton, associate justice of the supreme court of the territory of New Mexico, and judge of the Fifth judicial district court thereof. Thereupon the said district attorney, on behalf of said territory, and T. B. Catron, Esquire, on behalf of said defendants, agree that no objections shall be hereafter raised in case the Honorable N. B. Laughlin remains within this judicial district during the trial of this cause; and thereupon, a jury not having been obtained for the trial of this cause, the jurors already called are placed in the custody of the sheriff of the county of Santa F e until to-morrow morning, at ten o'clock.'
The trial of the case, commencing on that day, continued until May 29, 1895, when the jury found the defendants guilty as charged in the indictment; and, motions in arrest of judgment and for new trial having been submitted and denied, judgment was entered on the verdict, and defendants sentenced to be executed. To review this judgment and sentence, defendants sued out a writ of error from the supreme court of the territory, and the judgment was affirmed, September 1, 1896. 46 Pac. 349. The order of affirmance was set aside September 4th, and a rehearing granted, and thereupon the territory suggested diminution of the record, and prayed for a certiorari, which was issued. On the 9th of September, Judge Laughlin convened a special term of the district court in and for the county of Santa F e, to be begun September 21st, for the term of two consecutive weeks, or such further time as might be deemed necessary, 'for the purpose of hearing and determining all causes that may be pending in said court, both civil and criminal; and any business pending in said court, or that may come before it in the usual course of business of said court, will be taken up and acted upon and disposed of in the same manner as at a regular term of said court, and as provided by law.'