Free Republic

President Bush, who apparently uses the same pen for veto’s and pardons, has given out 14 and commuted the sentences of 2 others. All were pretty much low level scumbags who pretty much hurt no one but themselves, but what about the border agents? Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., noted that the list also did not include former Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were convicted of shooting a drug smuggler and trying to cover it up. Ramos and Compean are each serving sentences of more than 10 years for shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks while...

A second former Border Patrol agent who received a lengthy sentence in a case involving the shooting of a fleeing drug smuggler has been resentenced to his original 11 years and a day in prison, as the agents' supporters hold out hope for presidential pardons. Ignacio Ramos got the same sentence two years ago when he was convicted in the shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, an admitted, and now convicted, drug smuggler. On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone gave Ramos' partner, Jose Alonso Compean, his original 12-year sentence, 10 years on a charge of using a weapon in...

As I noted in a post during the Republican convention in September, there was something fishy about the Republicans' use of the slogan "Country First" in the recent campaign. Why not "America First?" We got the answer the other day when the Bush administration continued its attack on the two U.S. Border Patrol agents who were sentenced to long jail terms for shooting and wounding a drug smuggler. The Bush Justice Department continued to go after the men this week and succeeded in an effort to prevent any significant reduction in the sentences of former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose...

(CNSNews.com) – In the waning days of the Bush administration, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is mulling whether to recommend a commutation for the two former Border Patrol agents jailed for more than a decade each for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in the buttocks. The case is now before the DOJ’s Pardon Attorney Donald Rodgers. The Office of Pardon Attorney works in consultation with the attorney general’s office to assist the president, who has sole power of clemency in federal cases under the Constitution. Ultimately, it is the president’s call regardless of what the Office of Pardon Attorney recommends....