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 ...
McCain should state that his very first act as President will be to issue a full pardon for these two men.
These men never should have been prosecuted.
At times the Bush Justice Department seems to function as a fully owned subsidiary of the Democrat Party.
I have absolutely zero sympathy for Compean. He is a contemptible toad.
I believe that Ramos actually thought he was defending a fellow officer - but instead of doing the right thing after he realized this was not the case, he stuck by Compean's lies rather than honor his oblighation to the public trust.
In my personal opinion, Ramos' sentence was too harsh and Compean's sentence was far too light.
I usually ignore these posters whose purpose appears to be to disrupt, distort, and trash conservatives on FR.
BTW, I expect Palin would pardon Ramos and Compean if she had the power - which she will not have as VP.
How interesting. How do you reconcile your comment above with your comment #26? ROTFLMAO
Meanwhile swat teams can break into the wrong house, shoot innocent people, and not only do they not go to jail or lose their jobs, they don't even have to apologize to the victims family. I guess Mexican drug smugglers are more important than innocent Americans, at least to the Bush administration.
That’s not a very good analogy, unless you wish to argue that Ramos and Compean were shooting at the wrong guy.
IMHO the correct procedure:
—Pardon.
—Reinstate with back pay. Relieve their former “superiors”.
—Promote ahead of peers. Consider them first when finding replacements for their former “superiors”.
—Make the actions for which they were charged Official Policy. I mean, shooting invaders on sight and giving plausible deniability ought to be POLICY.
—Oh yes...marksmanship training so the invaders don’t survive/escape.
How about the smuggler? Was his sentence too harsh or too light? I just don't agree with you about Compean. These guys were on the job. They were in a risky business where things can get really dangerous, where people carry guns and people do get shot and killed. He got excited and started popping off rounds and then he tried to hide his screw up. Yes, he should lose his job, maybe even get some time, but ten years with no parole? No way. People get a lot less for far worse conduct. It was too much time for both of these guys.
It is rare that law enforcement get charged for their screw ups. When it happens they usually don't get hammered this hard. The problem was the firearms statute with the ten year mandatory minimum sentence. That's why these two got so much time. If not for the mandatory minimum sentence they'd probably be home today.
Thank you saved me some keyboarding.
So, making an apples to apples comparison, all criminals shot by police should be able to get the officers charged with attempted murder?
Considering, this isn't even the charge they are in jail for, your argument fails in the first line.
Championing Ramos and Compean is to champion the wrong way of doing things and to celebrate incompetence.
From your lips to Johnny Sutton's ears.
This was a travesty of justice from the get go. Figures you'd come down on the side of some black robed pervert instead of Justice.
As you well know, Compean and Ramos made sure that he would get no sentence of any kind, harsh or light.
I just don't agree with you about Compean. These guys were on the job. They were in a risky business where things can get really dangerous, where people carry guns and people do get shot and killed. He got excited and started popping off rounds and then he tried to hide his screw up.
Compean got mad because he was a disgusting, out-of-shape fatbody who got completely clowned by a wiry little dirtbag.
So, because he had zero impulse control, he emptied his weapon on an unarmed man and then stopped to reload and shot at him again. That's right - he stopped to reload - he went beyond his initial lack of impulse and coldly fired again. As a further testament to Compean's skill and preparedness, every one of his shots missed the target.
Then, knowing full well that what he did was illegal, he immediately began tampering with the scene. Then he ordered a less experienced agent to help him tamper with the scene. Then he lied to a second agent and claimed that he had fired in self-defense, implicating both of his originally innocent colleagues even more deeply in his actions. Then he lied to his superiors. Then he lied to investigators.
Men with dangerous jobs - soldiers, firefighters, policemen - often react impulsively and even overreact: adrenaline is a hell of a drug.
And that's to be expected.
What is not be expected is that they will betray their own colleagues and destroy their own brothers-in-arms in order to save their own skins.
ten years with no parole? No way. People get a lot less for far worse conduct.
Law enforcement professionals need to be held to a higher standard - they have a lot of power entrusted in them by society. Flagrant abuse of that power should be strictly punished.
“Black robed pervert?” Like the Reagan appointee that wrote the District Court opinion (the one that the 5th Circuit declined to review)?
not only did they try to execute him, but they cleaned up the scene, removing all evidence of the shooting, and while getting ready to dump the van he rode in on, they found the dope, AFTER they shot him in the back...a previous poster said they were protecting us, if protecting us means shooting unarmed people in the back, i don’t want or need that kind of stinkin’ protection
This is beyond comprehension.
“Everyone with any familiarity with the case knows that Aldrete-Davila got away.”
Only to be arrested later doing the same thing, while Johhny “Screw America” Sutton made the jury believe he was just a victim of thuggish border guards.
“Compean got mad because he was a disgusting, out-of-shape fatbody who got completely clowned by a wiry little dirtbag.”
You were there?? Sounds to me like you are pro illegal alien and anti Border Patrol.
The jury, the trial judge, three District Court judges, and now a number of Appeals Court judges.
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