Posted on 10/19/2006 3:37:27 PM PDT by no dems
Edited on 10/19/2006 4:07:46 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
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.
If they had killed the drug smuggler he couldn't have been given immunity to testify.
Find a better one and go to it.
My God.
At least they are free until the firstof the year.
Treat the smugglers like dogs-shoot,shovel,shutup.
Now I see it for what it is.....status quo.
The feds and the globalist wont be happy until theres an outright war on the border.
This is when ALL the border patrol agents should walk off the job - heck, who in the world would EVER want to be one anymore???? Total injustice!!!!
See Post #26.
The Feds are just sending a message of whose side they are on, and it ain't the side of the good guys. The good guys are going to jail in this crime against law and order. If the government ain't roasting wayward Christians in Waco, they are putting away honorable guys just trying to secure the border.
Just a small peek into our future.
The drug smugglers and kidnappers/murderers from mexico will either get immunity or go back to mexico...we're stuck with their mess. Who will want to work for the border patrol after this?
BS.
This is so *^%&%$ unJUST. Why does a drug smuggler get immunity? The whole case is so upside down/backward.
That truly makes NO sense...a Clinton judge?
It's already being appealed. Jurors are claiming fraud.
What we've got here is a cultural deathwish.
Got anything to back that up, like a link?
Look, believe what you want. This thread is not about Lou Dobbs politics; it's about two innocent men going to prison for doing their job.
GIVE ME A FREAKIN' BREAK!!!
"I'm watching Dobbs because I'm sick and tired of Brit Hume and his sucky "Allstars"."
??? Brit Hume's show is the best hour on TV
In truth, the drangement is thinking Bush is defensible on the border 'at all'.
On this issue, I'd have to know the particulars of the case, which I don't. It doesn't look good, but perhaps these border agents were out of line. If they weren't, this is a travesty of justice.
What type of fraud are the jurors claiming? That someone lied about the sentence that THEY handed down? or that the case shouldn't be appealed?
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