Posted on 08/23/2003 6:09:26 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Perry pardons gun dealer Tommy Bean
Wire and staff reports
HOUSTON (AP) - A former Vidor gun dealer was pardoned Friday by Texas Gov. Rick Perry of a felony conviction in Mexico in a case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Thomas Lamar "Tommy" Bean's appeal lost at the high court as he was trying to regain his rights after he was convicted in Mexico for having a box of ammunition that was left in his vehicle when he drove across the border.
Bean and two of his employees were detained March 14, 1998 at the Mexico Customs checkpoint at the Gateway of the Americas Bridge. Bean and two of his employees had gone to Nuevo Laredo to dine after a gun show at La Posada.
"We removed guns, ammunition and other items from the Suburban, but my people overlooked several boxes of ammo," Bean said in a Laredo Morning Times interview last December. "They were in full view of the inspectors. They seized 204 bullets."
A friend and business associate paid $5,000 to an attorney to have the two employees released. Bean was eventually released from La Loma prison in September of 1998 as part of a prisoner exchange with the United States.
"We are elated that it finally got done," Bean's attorney, Larry Hunter, said of the pardon. "What this does is it restores his civil rights on the state level. It will give us the opportunity to go back to the Secretary of Treasury to ask him to reconsider on the federal level.
"At least we have one jurisdiction straightened out."
The Mexican conviction will stand but will be removed from Bean's record in Texas, said Kathy Walt, a spokeswoman for Perry.
"There is a state law that specifically allows a governor to grant a pardon for a violation of a foreign law," she said. "It would have no bearing on Mexico."
Bean, 63, was a licensed federal firearms dealer when he was arrested in Mexico in March 1998. Before crossing the border for dinner, he had ordered his associates to remove any guns or ammunition from the vehicle, but more than 200 bullets in an armrest tray were overlooked.
Bean spent five months in a Mexican prison before he was returned to the U.S. as part of a prisoner exchange program, then spent another month in a federal lockup. Bean, who now sells cars in Port Arthur, said his Mexican conviction ended his days as a gun dealer.
After publicity about Bean's case, Mexico reduced the crime for bringing ammunition across its borders to a misdemeanor, and only a fine now is imposed on first-time offenders, according to court records.
Last year, Bean took his case to the Supreme Court to regain his gun rights - something a district judge ruled he deserved to have restored. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also supported the judge's ruling.
But the Supreme Court shut the door on his efforts, ruling felons can't go straight to court to get their gun rights restored and must go through a federal agency. That agency, however, has been banned by Congress since 1992 from processing requests.
"This whole thing has just been a nightmare," Hunter said. "This whole plight has been because somebody else left some shells in the back of a Suburban."
Felons are barred from owning or possessing guns in the United States if the conviction occurred in this country or elsewhere, but they can ask the government for an exception.
A representative with the U.S Attorney's office in Beaumont could not immediately be reached for comment late Friday afternoon.
U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson's office, which appealed the case to the Supreme Court, also did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press Friday.
PS - Screw Mexico!
Well, at least one good thing has come out of this case. Years ago, when I used to go hunting down near the border, I didn't know that it was a felony to have ammunition in Mexico. There's no telling how many times we went across the border to eat with a small quantity of ammo in the truck -- good thing we were never searched!
It pisses me off royally that this problem has yet to be rectified.
You and me both. 1992, that would be when KKKlintoon usurped the reins of government
Which agency? I'll bet it is connected with the ultimate JACK-BOOTED-BABY-KILLERS, the ATF.
The Republicans hold the House, The Senate, The presidency, and most of the State governors. If it isn't rectified now, it never will be. There is no longer the excuse that the Democrats are blocking them on this or any other issue.
Nothing in MEXICO I need and will never go there.
To bad Mexico is coming to US. Is anyone in Congress Home!
As much as I'd like to blame this on klintoon, he didn't move into the Oral Office until January 2003. This happened under Bush, the elder.
Three cheers for Gov Perry and Tommy Bean.
They have stolen more jobs from the USA via NAFTA than they have flooded our border cities with illegals....well almost. They really REALLY want back the territory they lost to us as a result of the Mexican War and by purchase.
Some court decisions on the subject are even more loathsome.
The statute which [in theory] allows for felons to petition to have their rights restored also provides for an appeal process in case the petition is denied. The courts have held, however, that no appeal can be filed until a petition is actually denied; a governmental decision to simply sit on the petition while neither approving nor denying it isn't appealable.
Actually it would be before. Clinton didn't mouth the oath of office until January 1993. Blame Congress for this POS, which gets inserted into the treasury department, now preseumably the Justice department, appropriation every year. Lots more guiltly parties on this one besides Clinton.
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