Posted on 07/22/2007 2:47:48 AM PDT by parousia
The Judiciary Committee hearing chaired by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein took exception to how the case was handled. Ramos and Compean fired at him 15 times, hitting him once before he got away. Compean gathered up the shell casings, and the two agents filed a false report leaving out the shooting. Border agents discharge their weapons all the time - 144 agents have done it throughout the past two years - without being prosecuted. What's impermissible is to shoot someone who represents no threat. It turned out Aldrete-Davila's van contained roughly 750 pounds of marijuana... but doesn't justify shooting him on sight. A West Texas jury heard the agents' defense - including that they thought Aldrete-Davila was armed - and rejected it. The injustice is in the sentencing. The prosecutor offered Ramos and Compean plea bargains for 18-24 months in jail, which seems appropriate. When they rejected the pleas, they went to trial on 12 counts, including discharging a weapon in the course of a violent crime. Unbeknownst to the jury, that firearms charge carries a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence and is responsible for Ramos and Compean getting 11 and 12 years, respectively. The statute in question was meant to be a way to deter criminals from carrying weapons, and, as Feinstein and Cornyn write, ''should be used as an enhancing charge against drug dealers and individuals who commit violent crimes.'' Except in extraordinary cases, applying it to law-enforcement officers who carry their weapons as a matter of course is perverse. Once they brought the charge and the jury found the agents guilty of it, the judge was locked into sending them to prison for more than a decade... Only an act of executive clemency can counterbalance the excesses of the criminal-justice system.
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
Waco & Ruby Ridge, have alot in common with R&C + Hernandez, Sipe! All have been RAILROADED by the order of The Main Man. The message is the same... follow my demand or be damned.
Ramos/Compean Ping
The President is able to see the need to increase protection for Iraq, but, apparently, not for our own country’s border. And close examination of the numbers show we are encountering bad people among the “good” trying to break into our country.
The President is also able to bifurcate which stem cells he vetoes, and which he does not.
The fact that he is a good person does not mean he always makes good choices. His stubbornness and loyalty to friends are legendary. It causes me to dispair that this President will not do the right thing. [But, I hope so.]
I read the transcript, as did you, [although I will need to reread it to refresh myself at this late date] and did not arrive at the same conclusion you did. Others likewise read it and differed in their opinions. Reading the transcript, while giving you creditability, does not give you infallibility. Nor does the fact that the jury decided a given way make that opinion true. It may be a legal decision, but the question is was it an uninformed or coerced verdict? Because of evidence withheld or, worse, distorted, the jurors might not have made a “proper” decision. That is why we have judicial reviews and, as a last resort, pardons.
The pass you question was reported to be a humanitarian pass not requiring an escort across the border or specific appointment. I think his pass was finally revoked last January when it became apparent, even to the prosecutors, that Davila was using his pass for no good.
Just yesterday, on the nightly news, it was reported that Congress had finally gotten through the FOIA confirmation that Davila was identified carrying drugs a second time that October.
Davila confessed on a call to a US Border Agent, whom was a boyhood friend of his, that he smuggled drugs into the US and that was why he was reluctant to come forward about the shooting. [Who prompted him to come forward is still murky.] Davila’s relationship with that Agent was never fully explored. However, Sen. John Cornyn stated he felt there was adequate evidence to charge Davila. Sutton chose not to and chose to blame Ramos and Compean.
While it may not amount to a conspiracy, there was Mexican gov’t involvement in this case and others. At this point no improper connection has been made...at this point. Your belief in the execution of laws is laudable, but when those laws are improperly or excessively applied, people lose respect for both the laws and those who administer them. What I see is not a single case, Ramos-Compean; what I see is an abuse of prosecutorial power by Johnny Sutton and his cohorts and that concerns me gravely.
This is a canard. Sutton's office did not have to impose that charge, they chose to. In fact they did not put it on the table while they were plea bargaining for just a couple of years. It is on the back's of Sutton and his minions that they utilized a law in a way it was not intended. They used it in a vengeful way!
There are limits to prosecutorial discretion. If the evidence before you supports a charge, you bring it. A US Attorney is sworn to uphold the laws of the land as they are on the books.
Really? I count two. Are there more? At any rate, this is the way crimes get prosecuted;you work with the whitnesses you've got. If imunity from prosecution invalidates a testimony, 90% of all perps would get off.
Often that testimony, including Davila’s and including an agent’s changed several times.
Really? Please indicate how Davila's testimony changed. I also see that you fail to mention that Compean and Ramos changed their stories numerous times.
It may be a legal decision, but the question is was it an uninformed or coerced verdict? Because of evidence withheld or, worse, distorted, the jurors might not have made a “proper” decision.
What evidence was withheld?
As regards to how Davila used his pass into the states, it's not relevant to the question of whether C&R are guilty.
Davila confessed on a call to a US Border Agent, whom was a boyhood friend of his, that he smuggled drugs into the US and that was why he was reluctant to come forward about the shooting. [Who prompted him to come forward is still murky.] Davila’s relationship with that Agent was never fully explored.
Again, not relevant to the guilt or innocence of C&R.
However, Sen. John Cornyn stated he felt there was adequate evidence to charge Davila.
Even if that were true, how in the world were they going to get their hands on him? Remember, he was in Mexico.
As the the connections of the Mexican government in this case, they are also not relevant to the guilt or innoncence of C&R.
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