I disagree, criminal prosecution should be in line for ANY LEO who covers their mistakes by lying, especially when the "mistake" involves shooting someone. If they can get away with it when it's an illegal drug smuggler, they'll get away with it when it's a US citizen regardless of criminality.
I don't think they should've gotten prison, that's nearly a death sentance. But they shouldn't be allowed to be LEO's any longer.
The jury was told that this “victim” was unarmed. Who was it that said he was unarmed? The drug smuggler himself.
He violated his own immunity deal when he kept smuggling drugs into the country afterwards.
The agents fired when they believed him to be an armed man. Perhaps he was. Certainly his own statement means nothing as to the truth. “he said/he said”.
People on the jury, who were kept from knowing what manner of man the agents were dealing with, upon hearing the entire truth afterwards, indicated they would not have voted to find them guilty.
If the shooting was justified in the least, and I believe it was, then what they did was a procedural and administrative mistake that should have been handled as such...and perhapos harshly in those terms...but these men should not have been sent to prison or been found guilty of felony charges.
The trial, in that regard, was a witch hunt by a politically charged prosecutor, IMHO.
The legal story here is not over and will not be until they have exhausted their appeals. We shall see how it stands at that point.