Posted on 01/20/2009 7:38:42 AM PST by SmithL
On his way out of office, President Bush used his power of the pardon to commute the sentences of former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who had been sentenced to 11 years and 12 years respectively for shooting and wounding a fleeing drug smuggler in 2005 and then covering up the incident. It was the right move.
Ramos and Compean supporters no doubt would have preferred it if Bush had pardoned the agents - which would have cleared their criminal records. In that Bush had stood by U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton's prosecution of the agents, as well as the jury verdicts, this is the best outcome that was to be had.
When Bush commuted the 30-month sentence of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, he did not fully pardon Libby. He let a $250,000 fine and two years of probation stand, although he did override the prison sentence, because it was "excessive."
No better word could describe the Ramos and Compean sentences.
Ramos and Compean say they thought Osvaldo Aldrete Davila was armed as he evaded arrest, but because he got away, there is no way to know if he was carrying a gun or just a shiny object. Sutton argued, and a jury concurred, that the agents realized they were shooting at an unarmed man. If Sutton is correct, their crime largely occurred in the heat of the chase - and never warranted sentences exceeding the usual plea bargain punishments awarded to crooked Border Patrol agents.
The reason for the long sentences - dumb laws. The federal mandatory minimum system, enacted by Congress in 1986, tacks 10 years onto a federal crime committed with a firearm.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Best I remember, two supervisors were at the scean and helped pick up the casings.
Since no one knew he had been hit, the supervisors didn't want to do a bunch of paper work.
There is still no proof that he was shot that day.
We already knew his Dad was bad on taxes. Didn't HW get Souter on the high bench? The problem was, we knew Juan was worse.
I'm guilty of this too; If you don't like who's running for office, you should run yourself or hire someone you trust to run. I never trusted W, but did have some hope that he could be convinced to do the right thing more often than he did.
Thank you for your civility.....
How many rounds of ammo are the BP issued? Do they typically carry ammo they have personally purchased?
you know how much the punishing of Ramos & Compean has been a victory for the pro-illegal movement and Bush has been very aware of well their prosecution has played amongst the Mexican public on Telemundo and Univision and amongst the La Raza and Maldef crowds.
He has refused to defend these agents or even mitigate their actions because it would harm his support from these liberal anti-American interest groups. He already planned on getting hit from the Right during the Amnesty debate but he couldn’t afford to lose the pro-Amnesty support if there was any chance of getting a deal done. And the two agents ended up being pawn in this political football.
And Bush showed no honor in handling this. He left them get Scooter’d.
well...the 'Toons', were getting paid...that's the ('rats) explanation.
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