>>OJ killed his wife because she was making a fool out of him and his manhood, and the BPA shot Davila because he was making a fool out of them and their BPA-hood.<<
I don’t think that comparison is fair. I think it is likely that Compean did not intend to shoot OAD. If he wanted to, he could have shot him point blank with a shotgun. Ramos heard many shots fired, and it seems likely that he really thought that he was entering a fire fight with bad guys.
The main questions are whether R&C should be pardoned, and if congress has the constitutional power to pardon. Congress could try to pass a bill retroactively freeing LEOs convicted under the “use of a firearm” law which added 10 years to the sentences. However, both that approach and Hunter’s bill that pardons R&C would require GWB’s signature.
Which is more “just”:
1) R&C serving sentences of more than 10 years, with Compean’s life at risk every day, and Ramos in solitary confinement for the rest of his sentence (after being beaten by illegals in prison), not even allowed to read books
2) A pardon for both
While neither solution is perfect, I find myself closer to the camp for #2.
I spent a month “discussing” this with others and reached basically the same conclusion you did. I’m good with the agents losing their badges and not serving more time. What concerns me is how these 2 are being elevated to sainthood status and how their case is being misrepresented by the border control crowd. There is nothing wrong about admitting these guys had a bad shoot but don’t deserve jail. The attempted cover up alone is enough justification to lose their badge, so that may be a foregone conclusion. But they just can’t bring themselves to admit it was a bad shoot and the only reason for that I can think of is because the perp was a mexican.
There are plenty of BPA heroes out there to point to as role models. Using these two besmirches the integrity of the entire BP and every agent.