Posted on 09/12/2008 6:00:19 AM PDT by kellynla
EL PASO, Texas — Two former Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug smuggler and trying to cover it up have been denied a request for a new hearing.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans denied the request by Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean on Wednesday. The same court upheld the men's convictions in July.
No reason was given for the Wednesday's denial.
Ramos and Compean are each serving sentences of more than 10 years for shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks while he was fleeing from an abandoned marijuana load in 2005.
Aldrete was sentenced to 9 1/2 years in prison for his role in two seperate smuggling efforts later that same year.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Words fail me...
What is this? Another "magic" bullet? Even the original "magic" bullet travelled through Kennedy in a straight path. It did not strike bone. Neither did the bullet in Davila's thigh until it hit the bone just above and behind the urethra. That path is still 45 degrees or more.
Your "forensic experts".
17 Q. Is that the bullet before it was taken out? 18 A. I believe so. 19 Q. Okay. And the -- so the bullet -- from this x-ray can you 20 tell whether, because of the fragments and the location of the 21 fragments and the break, the bullet first hit that bone? 22 A. I can't. I'm not -- 23 Q. You're not an orthopedist, correct? 24 A. I'm not an orthopod, and I'm not a trajectory expert, so I 25 cannot -- I can say that there's foreign objects in the David A. Perez, CSR, RPR Miller - Redirect by Ms. Kanof 220 1 location of his pubic symphysis, and there's a foreign object 2 here (indicating) that are very radio dense, greater than bone, 3 meaning they're hard, solid substances. I cannot say more than 4 that. 5 Q. You said you're not a trajectory expert, correct? 6 A. Not at all.
I suppose Davilla's assault FIRST, before being shot and trying to escape, doesn't count?
Since when does FR champion scumbag, border-jumping, felons?
This from the guy who couldn't even get what they were actually tried on and convicted of, means almost nothing.
Nice twisting of my words. I said the testimony makes clear that Compean was aware that Aldrete-Davila was unarmed.
Of course Compean's entire hope for acquittal was to claim that Aldrete-Davila was armed - he would never admit it on the stand.
But an objective reader of the testimony - like the jurors - will immediately draw the conclusion that the magical production of a weapon by Aldrete-Davila as described by Compean makes no sense in the context of Compean's other testimony.
According to Compean's own testimony we are to believe:
(1) Aldrete-Davila ran past Compean instead of firing at him with this mythical weapon.
(2) Compean dropped his shotgun purposefully, even though he had no idea whether Aldrete-Davila had a weapon or not (wow, that's smart), giving the supposedly armed Aldrete-Davila the drop on him.
(3) He physically grappled with Aldrete-Davila and Aldrete-Davila threw dirt in his eyes, temporarily disorienting Compean, but Aldrte-Davila did not pull out his imaginary weapon and begin firing but ran away instead.
(4) That after running away, Aldrete-Davila decided to stop running and turn back to kill Compean instead.
(5) That even though Aldrete-Davila's imaginary gun was already drawn and pointed at him, Compean was able to see the gun, draw and get off shots before Aldrete-Davila was able to get off any shots at all, despite the fact that Aldrete-Davila had the drop on him two or three times already.
Compean's testimony makes no logical sense - and the fact that his own codefendant's testimony contradicts his on so many levels, as does Agent Juarez's - his testimony is not believable.
In Compean's account, Aldrete-Davila acts exactly as an unarmed man would all along - until the very last moment.
In other words, still no arguments.
BTW, I misspelled some words as well, and committed a couple of grammatical infelicities.
Neither the defense nor the prosecution could produce definitive evidence of a specific trajectory from any expert.
you must be talking about when they( border patrol agents ) had him on his knees, and threatened to shoot him in the head right there, so he ( at the time suspected of committing a mistemeanor offense )broke free and ran away, you mean that assault? I do not support felons, which is why the border patrol guys are in prison where they belong.......
You're basically proposing turning Border Patrol agents into roving death squads.
I think you don't actually know any actual Border Patrol agents- I would advise against telling any of them you think they're death squad material as you might end up with a beating.
>Hopefully Bush will pardon Ramos & Compean just before he leaves office.<
Why should he piss off his Mexican friends?
I'm asking you to support that statement with actual testimony. I have shown you testimony where Compean clearly states he thought Davila was armed.
But an objective reader of the testimony - like the jurors - will immediately draw the conclusion that the magical production of a weapon by Aldrete-Davila as described by Compean makes no sense in the context of Compean's other testimony.
Objective reader of the testimony includes a universe of people outside the jurors. And there is a video on the internet of a suspect in police custody that "magically" produces a weapon and then commits suicide.
Your points.
(1)Aldrete-Davila testified that he looked back and saw two or three agents behind him pointing guns at him. It would be foolhardy to produce a weapon when surrounded by "itchy" trigger fingered authorities. I give Davila some intelligeht reasoning ability.
(2)Compean testified he threw his shotgun down. It would have been a hinderance in the physical apprehension of the fleeing subject. If he was pissed off, why did he not just blast away with the shotgun?
(3)Davila was inteerested in getting away since he knew more agents might be on the way. First get away, then draw your weapon.
(4)No one testified that Davila stopped. He turned for whatever reason, one of which might be to deter anyone from following him.
(5) Oh, so your policy would be to get shot at first then ask questions. No, Compean reacted to a dangerous situation in a timely fashion.
It does not take a forensics expert to join two points in a line, butt cheek and pubic symphysis. Now unless this is a magic bullet these paths are tied to a trajectory. No one admits to Davila being shot from the front. Therefore the bullet travelled from the butt cheek to the pubic area. No bone was involved in that path so deviation from a straight line is not imagined. Voila, a trajectory.
Are you sure you are talking about this case? Even Davila did not make up that story.
Are you sure you are talking about this case? Even Davila did not make up that story.
The the logical reaction would be to get the heck out of Dodge - not slow down or stop to fire back at a group that you know must completely outgun you.
Compean testified he threw his shotgun down. It would have been a hinderance in the physical apprehension of the fleeing subject. If he was pissed off, why did he not just blast away with the shotgun?
Compean said he intentionally dropped it. Juarez, who watched him, testified that Compean swung at Aldrete-Davila with the stock and then accidentally dropped it into the ditch.
Presumably, making a fool of himself by accidentally dropping is weapon would get him very angry (Juarez testimony scenario) or getting knocked down and having dirt thrown in his face would get him angry (Compean testimony scenario).
He wouldn't have been particularly angry in any scenario before he dropped his shotgun - it was what happened after he dropped his shotgun (in either the Juarez or Compean scenarios) that would have been humiliating.
Davila was inteerested in getting away since he knew more agents might be on the way. First get away, then draw your weapon.
Again, why would you draw your weapon at all if you are most interested in outrunning the agents? Assuming that Aldrete-Davila had basic intelligence (as you grant above) he knew that a gun battle between himself and four agents was one he could not win and he also knew that he had a good running lead on them and that they could only pursue him on foot at that point.
It is completely illogical for him to be running away with the closest agent to him on the ground, and stop or slow down allowing a crew of men with massively superior firepower to close on him.
No one testified that Davila stopped. He turned for whatever reason, one of which might be to deter anyone from following him.
What were his choices - if he turned he would lose speed or stop, giving the pursuers an advantage. They would also be motivated to fire on him with their superior firepower.
Clearly his best option was to continue running at top speed to the border.
No other course of action was logical for him.
You've got it exactly backward. Compean is testifying that Aldrete-Davila had the drop on him but waited for Compean to retrieve his sidearm, aim and fire without Aldrete-Davila firing a shot.
I'm saying that Compean, with his manifestly slower reaction time, was not going to get off the first shot in a situation where the fugitive had the drop on him.
It's not plausible.
If Aldrete-Davila really had a gun and really drew on Compean, he would have easily gotten off the first shot - and Compean would then have no need to steal evidence from the scene to hide his actions.
Aldrete-Davila was born without a pelvis?
sorry, been awhile since i talked about this one....while they were holding, detaining, however, they were talking between themselves, threatening to shoot the perp in the head, that is what started the scuffle, and why he threw dirt in their faces and ran. I will find my transcripts of the governments case and relay to you the exact scenario in a few ( i am at work and have to get something done )
**The testimony discloses that Aldrete-Davila was unarmed and fleeing.
In those circumstances, trying to kill him could never be
justified.**
If you believe that this drug dealer was unarmed hauling tons of drugs into the U.S., and if you don’t think this was all a set up job against the border patrol, I would have liked to see what would have happened had the drug dealer shot one of the Border Patrol agents dead.
I can tell you, Nothing! Johnny Sutton would have got him off, no problem.
I don't know about your lower butt cheek, but mine and, I presume from the testimony, Davila's is below the pelvis. I don't know about yours.
See that hump which is lower than the pelvis on the right of each person in the image above. That is a butt cheek. Where it meets the leg on the legs way down to the foot is called the lower butt cheek.
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