BREAKING NEWS: Two Border Patrol Agents who wounded a drug smuggler given 11 and 12 years prison.

Lou Dobbs / CNN | 10-19-06 | no dems

[no dems]

Ex-border agents sentenced for shooting smuggler
AP

EL PASO, Texas -- Two former U.S. Border Patrol agents were each sentenced Thursday to more than a decade in federal prison for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler and then trying to cover it up.

Ignacio Ramos was sentenced to 11 years and one day, and Jose Alonso Compean was sentenced to 12 years. Both were fired after their convictions on several charges including assault with a deadly weapon, obstruction of justice, and a civil rights violation.

The men, neither of whom spoke in court, will be allowed to turn themselves in Jan. 17.

The agents have proclaimed their innocence in the Feb. 17, 2005, shooting of admitted drug smuggler Osvlado Aldrete Davila.

Aldrete was shot in the buttocks as he fled across the Rio Grande into Mexico after a confrontation with Ramos and Compean. The agents said they shot in self defense, but prosecutors charged that they had no reason to shoot at the fleeing man, who later claimed he was unarmed.

Since their convictions, support for the agents has swelled. Several prominent law makers, including U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, the Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House judiciary committee, have even called for a Congressional investigation into the agents' prosecutions.

The union representing most rank and file Border Patrol agents established a legal defense fund. And civilian border watch groups have asked the U.S. Attorney General's office to review the case and throw out the jury's guilty verdicts.

[PRND21]

So they picked up some shell casings, whoopdie frigin doo.

You mean whoopdie frigin felony?

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

In my book picking up your shellcasings is at most a ministerial fault.

If you were to do it after a self-defense shooting in your home, before the police arrived to document the scene, you'd be looking at 20 years--and that is assuming all you did was wound the guy. If the intruder died, you'd be looking at Murder One, and life in prison. These guys got light sentences by comparison.

[CottonBall]

No....This COUNTRY sucks.

Find a better one and go to it.

No, that's what illegals do. We'll stay and fight. That's what our forefathers did when faced with tyranny and oppression. Nov 7 is coming up soon. Bad time for this news to hit the fan.

[Republicus2001]

yeah yer right maybe I should just sit this one out---

[TommyDale]

Note the styling of the windbreaker. It should be blue, with gold letters saying POLICE with ICE below it.

[AnnaZ]

Only in that various BATF agents who have done similar things over the past couple of decades have not likewise been prosecuted.

These aren't BATF agents. Whole different kettle of fish. These are BP, and the guy is a drug smuggler, not a 16-year-old with a dime bag, or some old retired guy with his savings under the mattress.

[Ben Chad]

DINGUE! FUBAR!

[BigSkyFreeper]

"According to the U.S. attorney who successfully prosecuted the agents

-snip-

That US Attorney could be a board member of the ACLU. Alberto Gonzalez is the U.S. Attorney General.

[goldstategop]

Its an outrage of course. Two good men are going to prison for upholding the laws of this country while a drug smuggler gets a break. There was no justice in this case!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[no dems]

Libertarian isn't all that bad.

[madison10]

THANK YOU...

[no dems]

Sorry for your loss.

[no dems]

Oh please. It's all politics.

[phoenix0468]

No, I don't. According to their report, the perpetrator got away, and they weren't trying to cover up anything. They reported the incident in the first place, right? So why would they try to cover it up?

[no dems]

No thanks, I'll pass.

[onyx]

The country does not suck, our alleged leaders, including Bush, sorry to say, do.

We do not have alleged leaders, we have elected leaders with whom you might disagree. I do not share your opinion of President Bush.

[CottonBall]

The best way to fight this kind of tyrany is to vote for a Republican dominated Congress, while peppering them and the White House with protests.

Yeah - that worked extremely well with a Republican-controlled Senate and WH. If not for the House, we'd have a huge amnesty mess on our hands. The Senate and WH really did listen to all the faxes, emails, and bricks that were sent. I think you have good intentions on this, but they've already shown us they will completely disregard our wishes. So I'm going to be disregarding them on Nov. 7. (Except for my House rep, who voted for HR4437.)

[no dems]

Yep and the University of Texas.

[brazzaville]

Good afternoon.

I think TheBattman has it right, but it would have to be pretty much spontaneous to really be effective.

Michael Frazier

[muawiyah]

Proving, once again, it's a mere ministerial matter. It's rather like that Title 18 statement found on so many USPS postage statements ~ it's a felony to knowingly place false, fraudulent and misleading information on the form.

You can be subjected to fine, imprisonment and forfeiture of property.

And it happens thousands of times every day.

USPS does not prosecute such cases for a very good reason ~

Same with picking up your brass. One rule says you gotta' do it. Another rule says you gotta' "don't do it", but it's dependent on the circumstances. Here we have a hotpursuit situation, and no body. The prosecutor had all the discretion in the world to NOT PURSUE this case and instead grab the illegal alien and get him deported on a more formal basis.

Now we don't really know where this puke is. He could be in your neighborhood. Maybe he's the janitor for the judge's chambers. DOJ owes the public full and complete information about where this guy is.