Posted on 09/24/2007 6:15:44 AM PDT by Boston Blackie
Two former U.S. Border Patrol agents sentenced to lengthy prison terms for shooting a drug-smuggling suspect have asked a federal appeals court to overturn their convictions, saying they were charged with a nonexistent crime and convicted after the jury was given improper instructions by the trial judge.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Hopefully the appeals court judges aren’t Sutton’s/drug smuggler’s friends.
...”This is an outrageous case of prosecutorial abuse,” said Paul Kamenar, senior executive counsel for the Washington Legal Foundation, a watchdog group among eight organizations and persons who have filed briefs in support of the agents. “Instead of prosecuting the drug smuggler, the Justice Department filed a dozen felony charges against two agents trying to do their job.”...
And I thought my President would fix this. I remain an extra befuddled Michigan conservative and not a happy one either.
Fixing our broken legal system is even more important than who we elect for President.
The legal system seems to be the tool used to get around any inconvenient law that is passed and is used for punishing or rewarding the “right” people.
How much money did our government pay the illegal alien drug smuggler? I figured they would have settled with him by now. He’s probably sitting on a beach in Cancun, sipping a cool one.
More likely, he is still smuggling.
As a matter of fact, he was caught again with 700lbs. of marijuana after all of this. Amazing, ain’t it?
For medicinal purposes only, I'm sure...ô¿ô¬
He was “caught” with 700lbs of marijuana? Can you point us to the arrest report?
It was in the paper here in Savannah when the appeals were first started. I’m sure there are other AP or UPI stories about his second/third arrests, and the guy has a card from the Justice Dept. lackies that gives him unfettered access to the U.S. Go figure!
I think you should double check your facts, there have been no second or third arrests. The story about the second “load” came from another arrested drug smuggler. Now, maybe he did or didn’t, but there is no other evidence except that allegation and we know how reliable drug smugglers can be.
As for the his border pass card, that was given to him to receive treatment at a US hospital for his severed urethra (mexican doctors couldn’t treat it) and during the investigation/trial process. It was only valid at that time. Personally, I think it was dumb to do without some type of escort as it would make it possible for him to use it for further smuggling, but that is water under the bridge. Maybe they didn’t have the manpower at the time.
I’m no fan of Davila, but let’s try to keep the facts straight or we look like a mob of wild eyed UFO freaks spouting conspiracy theories as if they were facts.
They didn't arrest him. The prosecution decided to extend his immunity because arresting him for flagrantly breaking his immunity agreement would have destroyed their case and also destroyed their primary witness' credibility.
The court transcripts show that they were aware that he brought in another load of marijuana and that they were keeping the fact that they knew from the witness so they wouldn't lose his testimony, and the judge refused to allow any of that to be mentioned during the trial. He felt it would be unfair to the prosecution's case to let the jury know about any criminal activities after the day he was shot fleeing. The defense knew about it, but they were not allowed to question the witness about it or even ask him if he brought in any additional drugs after the day in which he was shot.
Secondly, they couldn’t convict Davila on the first charge due to the inept handling by R&C, Davila escaped back to Mexico were he was out of reach of the justice system.
For what it’s worth, there were indications that OVD might have agreed to act as an confidential informant for the DEA. Doesn’t anyone have the slightest curiosity how the DEA was able to nab this second smuggler so quickly with all the drugs sitting right there in his house? Stop believing everything you read in WND and start thinking with your brain.
Regardless, The judge ruled correctly on allowing that testimony into trial. First, it was only an allegation from another arrested smuggler, second it had no bearing on whether the shoot by R&C was good. Davila admitted he was smuggling on the stand...everyone, the judge, the jury the lawyers knew it. What impact would admitting to a second load have? That Davila REALLY REALLY was a drug smuggler?
I do not understand why supporters of R&C believe this to be the Rosetta Stone of their case. It’s meaningless in the context of whether or not R&C had justifiable cause to shoot OVD. OVD could have been a suspected jaywalker, a suspected thief or a suspected murderer, until he is convicted in a court of law he has the same constitutional rights not to be deprived of his life and to a fair trial as anyone else.
I know this may come as a surprise to some here, but LEO’s are not allowed to shoot unarmed fleeing SUSPECTS (at the time R&C didn’t know anything about OVD except that he evaded arrest) in the back. They are not judge jury and executioner, their job is to arrest suspected perps so they can be subject to the justice system.
Once you take the position that it was okay for R&C to kill OVD because they SUSPECTED him of being a drug smuggler, where does it end? Next week will it be okay for LEO’s to shoot you because they SUSPECT you of selling an illegal sawed off shotgun (Ruby Ridge) or the leader of a religious cult (Waco) or cheating on your taxes?
As for the “black shiny object” R&C said they saw, nobody, including the jury and most people who have read the trial transcripts believes that story. There was just to much evasion, contradictory evidence, unbelievable testimony and attempted cover up to make it credible.
Well, from the court transcripts, it sure seemed like the prosecution through the reports that he had brought in another load were credible, and they had access to all the resources of the US government to check out those reports.
The defense was prohibited from even mentioning the incident. The witness had apparently violated his immunity agreement and was lying to the prosecutor. Despite that obviously effecting the credibility of the witness, he was allowed to spin a tale of how he foolishly did this one bad thing, never did anything like it before leave it to the jury to assume he would never do it again. The defense wasn't allowed to mention that there was evidence that he had done it again.
If the jury knew what was going on behind the scenes at the trial, he would have had no credibility whatsoever.
There was lots of evidence that Ramos and Compean failed to report the incident and didn't follow procedures.
There wasn't any evidence that they knew that their shots had hit the guy, and Ramos only fired one shot (the one that actually hit him).
The bullet struck him more in the side than in the back, so he wasn't running directly away from the officers without looking back.
The evidence that a crime had been committed, rather than simply a serious breach of procedures was the testimony of a non-credible witness that was seeking to sue for civil penalties despite the incident resulting from his own criminal actions.
I suggest YOU check your facts too! He was re-arrested later for drug smuggling. Did I miss the memo appointing you God?
Bob is correct. He was never arrested again for drug smuggling, nor was he caught smuggling, nor was he ever found in possession of drugs again.
A man known to agents was caught with a load of Marijuana, about the time Davilas was known to be coming to America for the trial.
That man told police he didn’t smuggle the drugs, that they weren’t his, but that Davilas had had car trouble and had drove to his house and left the drugs with him.
There was no evidence linking Davilas to the drugs other than the testimony of a known drug smuggler who gave informational testimony that was public knowledge because of the coverage leading up to the trial.
Because the story helps Ramos/Compean, it has been picked up and embelished with the usual flair WND brings to such things. It’s even within the realm of possibility that it’s true, but that is highly unlikely.
The man’s court case was recently completed, I believe he was convicted or pled guilty.
While there was discussion of a civil suit, it doesn’t appear to have been pursued, not that it couldn’t still happen but it’s been some time now.
The prosecution knew of the claim. The prosecution said nothing to verify the claim, and simply argued that any such claim, true or not, had no bearing on the case. The judge agreed with their argument.
There have been many different claims related to this “second incident”, including that Davilas had been ARRESTED, that Sutton had gotten the arrest expunged, etc. Each time the story was disproven, a new story with different facts was circulated. There has never been any evidence other than the testimony of the man who was caught with the drugs, who was already a monitored drug suspect.
What evidence did they have that Compean and Ramos had shot at an unarmed man, rather than an armed criminal fleeing the scene of a crime? They had the word of a drug smuggler, the drug smuggler that had fled, and was seeking to cash in through a civil lawsuit.
In the court transcript the prosecution wasn't questioning the authenticity of the report that he had brought in drugs a second time, the information was simply suppressed.
Secondly, they couldn’t convict Davila on the first charge due to the inept handling by R&C, Davila escaped back to Mexico were he was out of reach of the justice system.
WHAT?!?! Ramos and Compean are responsible for Davila escaping back into Mexico? Talking about completely having things backwards. Ramos and Compean were the only agents who even attempted to apprehend Davila. The other agents were satisfied to let him go after they had captured the van. They didn't even bother to try and follow the suspect or render aid to the agents who did. They didn't even bother to follow or run and try and help after they heard shots fired. They just sat back at the van full of dope hoping to get credit for the drug seizer without having to do anything as strenuous as chase a suspect.
Davila was able to fell to Mexico despite the efforts of Ramos and Compean, not because of them. They were not able to prosecute Davila because they didn't know who he was, and even once they found out who he was they couldn't prosecute him, because the Mexican government never extradites such people to stand trial in the US.
For what it’s worth, there were indications that OVD might have agreed to act as an confidential informant for the DEA. Doesn’t anyone have the slightest curiosity how the DEA was able to nab this second smuggler so quickly with all the drugs sitting right there in his house? Stop believing everything you read in WND and start thinking with your brain.
I didn't read it in WND. I don't read WND, it's a worthless waste of my time. I read it in the court transcripts released by our government.
Regardless, The judge ruled correctly on allowing that testimony into trial. First, it was only an allegation from another arrested smuggler, second it had no bearing on whether the shoot by R&C was good.
There were no witnesses to the shooting other than Ramos, Compean, and Davila. The whole criminal prosecution (as opposed to an investigation over violated procedures) was based on Davila's testimony about what happened.
Davila admitted he was smuggling on the stand...everyone, the judge, the jury the lawyers knew it. What impact would admitting to a second load have? That Davila REALLY REALLY was a drug smuggler?
I recommend you take the time to read the court transcripts of Davila's testimony. He was allowed to present himself as a pour soul who had made one mistake of smuggling the van and it contents because he needed the money to get his permits renewed to drive a commercial truck and earn an honest living once again.
He even claimed that he did not know there were drugs in the vehicle. He said that he didn't know what the strong odor of marijuana was.
He was just an honest truck driver that fell on hard times, and made once bad choice when trying to get back on top of things and be a productive member of society again.
The defense didn't have the resources to investigate Davila throughly in Mexico. The US Government had far, far more resources, but wasn't interested in investigating Davila throughly because they decided Ramos and Compean were the criminals. They didn't even know that Davila had contacted a lawyer seeking to sue the government over the incident. They didn't even know that it was the border patrol agent that knew Davila's family, and had reported the incident, that had helped Davila find a lawyer for that civil suit. That same border patrol agent that was another of the prosecution's witnesses.
What the US government did find out about Davila that was unfavorable, they managed to get suppressed. They only investigated things that supported their side of the story.
Read the transcripts. You'll find that the prosecution was doing it's best to win, not to present the truth of what happened and let the jury decide. They were doing their best to only present what favored the prosecution and presented a good number of things in a misleading way.
What chance do individuals have when the United States Government is using it's resources to find them guilty. Not to find out what happened, but searching to find evidence that points to their guilt and not investigating things that might contradict that.
I do not understand why supporters of R&C believe this to be the Rosetta Stone of their case. It’s meaningless in the context of whether or not R&C had justifiable cause to shoot OVD. OVD could have been a suspected jaywalker, a suspected thief or a suspected murderer, until he is convicted in a court of law he has the same constitutional rights not to be deprived of his life and to a fair trial as anyone else.
When officers tried to pull over OVD, he fled in the van. He then jumped out of the van and ran through a deep gully and toward the border.
Both OVD and Compean agree that he was on the far side of the gully, and that he intercepted Davila, Davila claims he slowly walked up the steep bank with his hands above his head and Compean waited until he got close and then tried to hit him with the shotgun.
It was a little more vague if Compean was claiming that Davila assaulted him, or if he just lost his footing as Davila got to him and fell down. In either case, Davila then fled towards the border. Compean started shooting. He claims it was because he thought he saw Davila with a weapon. Davila denies that.
What is clear is that Davila was not fleeing directly away, because the bullet struck him in the side. Davilasays explains that by saying that he was zig-zagging back and forth as he ran.
By the time Ramos got up out of the gully, Compean was already firing at Davila, and he fired a single shot at the suspect his partner was shooting at. That was the shot that struck Davila.
The difference between a justifiable shooting and attempted murder is completely based upon the testimony of Davila, and that Compean and Ramos, as well as no other officers that were in the area, reported that shots were fired.
There is no question that Compean and Ramos failed to report that they had fired their weapons. However, Compean also gathered up his brass, disturbing the scene. Ramos did not.
There is no evidence that they knew they had hit Davila. He claims they shot him and then left him to die. That's not very credible since his body would be evidence that they had shot him.
The suspect had gotten away. The Mexican government doesn't extradite such suspects even if they could figure out who he was.
If you read the transcripts, you'll see that the border patrol is a dysfunctional organization where the procedures generally prevent the officers from doing anything resembling protecting the border, and definitely make it extremely difficult to actually apprehend a fleeing suspect.
It was also obvious that procedures were often generally ignored. Reporting the incident would not make it possible to capture Davila, he was long gone out of their jurisdiction. It was not part of building a case against the suspect, it was a bureaucratic procedure which only had a purpose if this criminal who fled custody later came back with accusations that he was innocent and was wrongly persecuted, and someone actually believed such a crazy story.
Once you take the position that it was okay for R&C to kill OVD because they SUSPECTED him of being a drug smuggler, where does it end?
I never claimed that it was ok to shoot an unarmed, fleeing suspect that presented no threat. Neither did Compean or Ramos. They claimed he was armed. The only evidence you have that he was not armed is his word. If he was armed, Compean and Ramos' actions were justified, and despite the way you are switching things around, Compean and Ramos are the defendants, and it is up to the prosecution to prove their case, or does your assumption of innocence only apply to fleeing suspects?
They say Davila had something shiny in his hand that they though was a gun. Since Davila got away, there isn't any physical evidence. It is simply their word against his. Apparently the word of a drug smuggler that they aren't even allowed to properly investigate his credibility holds more weight than the words of the agents.
He smuggled a van full of drugs into the country. They failed to file a report that served no other real purpose than to cover their rears in the event that he claimed they persecuted him, and if they had persecuted him, they could have simply filed the report and there would have been no reason to question its authenticity or evidence contradicting it. It would have just been their words against the word of a fleeing criminal. So why exactly do you think they didn't report the incident?
As for the “black shiny object” R&C said they saw, nobody, including the jury and most people who have read the trial transcripts believes that story. There was just to much evasion, contradictory evidence, unbelievable testimony and attempted cover up to make it credible.
I saw lots, and lots of evasion by Davila, yet you seem to think his testimony that he walked up a steep embankment with both hands in the air, and that he was then assaulted without provocation, and that he then fled zig-zagging at sharp angles so that when he was shot he was shot in the side, not the back, and that he had nothing in his hands.
The burden of proof is in the hands of the prosecution, and their "proof", since the issue depends on if his hands were empty, is the word of a man who obviously lied on the witness stand. Even if you believe some of his story, other parts are obviously not factual or credible.
You can point to all the evidence you want that Compean and/or Ramos acted like they had done something wrong when they were later questioned. They had done something wrong by failing to report the shooting. However, the only evidence that the shooting was a criminal act, is the word of a liar and a drug smuggler that is looking to make a fortune from suing the US government for the consequences of his own criminal actions.
The ONLY Presidential Candidate who’s promised to pardon both Ramos & Compean....DUNCAN HUNTER ‘08!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.