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Ex-border agents' pardons rest with Bush
If President Bush is considering pardoning two former U.S. Border Patrol officers convicted of shooting an escaping drug dealer in the buttocks, he is holding his cards close to his vest.
by Bob Campbell
Midland Reporter-Telegram
If President Bush is considering pardoning two former U.S. Border Patrol officers convicted of shooting an escaping drug dealer in the buttocks, he is holding his cards close to his vest.
A president about to leave office sometimes makes a Christmas present of pardons to prisoners he feels have been sufficiently punished, but whether the native Midlander plans such a gesture to former agents Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean before he leaves office in January looks like anyone's guess.
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals just turned down their appeals of the 11- and 12-year sentences they got in a 2006 trial in El Paso but reversed the five counts of which they were convicted of tampering with Border Patrol proceedings.
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who formally has asked the president to free Ramos and Compean, said Monday he did not know the status of Cornyn's request at the White House.
"We got a letter from the U.S. Justice Department that they had been forwarded our letter," the spokesman said. "It's with the pardon attorney, but the reality is the president can issue a pardon at any time. It lies in the hands of the president."
Campaigning in Texas, Cornyn told The Associated Press, "This case cries out for a fair and just commutation. I once again call on President Bush to act."
A spokeswoman for state Rep. Rick Noriega of Houston, Cornyn's Democratic opponent in the Nov. 4 general election, said Noriega was on hurricane relief duty as a Reserve Army lieutenant colonel at Camp Mabry in Austin and unavailable for comment.
She said Noriega previously had not addressed Ramos' and Compean's imprisonment for trying to cover up their shooting of admitted drug dealer Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in February 2005 southwest of El Paso near Fabens.
The court said the agents' trial "was conducted fairly and without reversible error," affirming convictions on one count each of committing an act of violence by discharging a firearm and others of depriving Davila of his civil rights.
It said reversals for tampering with the Border Patrol's investigation "may not be of much moment to Ramos and Compean because we leave the major convictions with the major sentences untouched."
U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of San Antonio, who caught withering political flak for convictions obtained by assistants Debra Kanoff and Jose Luis Gonzalez, called on critics "to re-evaluate their positions in light of the court record and description of the evidence.
"The simple truth is Ramos and Compean shot 15 times at an unarmed man running away from them and posing no threat," said Sutton. "In America, law enforcement officers do not get to shoot unarmed suspects, lie about it and file official reports that are false.
"That's a crime and prosecutors cannot look the other way."
The Phoenix inmates' lawyers, Bob Baskett and David Botsford of Austin, hailed the tampering reversals but were otherwise disappointed. "Those should have never been in there because they colored the jury's entire consideration," Botsford told the AP.
Taking issue with the original trial court's jury instructions and appellate court reasoning about the gun issue, Baskett said, "The court is wrong on a couple of major points and we will file a motion to rehear them."
Davila, who escaped into Mexico the day he was shot but six months ago pleaded guilty to marijuana smuggling, testified against the agents at their February 2006 trial. Aldrete is awaiting sentencing.
Rejecting a re-trial for Ramos and Compean, the appellate judges said the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution does not permit officers to shoot a fleeing suspect unless he poses a threat. They were acquitted of attempted murder at the original trial after arguing their breaking of Border Patrol regulations was portrayed falsely as a violation of the law.
"We can surely debate whether there is an intuitive distinction between a violent criminal or drug trafficker using a gun and a police officer using a gun against a fleeing felon," Circuit Judges E. Grady Jolly, Patrick Higginbotham and Edward Prado wrote in their 46 page opinion.
"However, neither the statue nor cases make such a distinction. The Supreme Court firmly established the conduct for which Ramos and Compean were convicted by a jury of their peers violates the rights of the fleeing felon if he poses no threat to the officers or a danger to others."
A president about to leave office sometimes makes a Christmas present of pardons to prisoners he feels have been sufficiently punished, but whether the native Midlander plans such a gesture to former agents Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean before he leaves office in January looks like anyone's guess.
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals just turned down their appeals of the 11- and 12-year sentences they got in a 2006 trial in El Paso but reversed the five counts of which they were convicted of tampering with Border Patrol proceedings.
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who formally has asked the president to free Ramos and Compean, said Monday he did not know the status of Cornyn's request at the White House.
"We got a letter from the U.S. Justice Department that they had been forwarded our letter," the spokesman said. "It's with the pardon attorney, but the reality is the president can issue a pardon at any time. It lies in the hands of the president."
Campaigning in Texas, Cornyn told The Associated Press, "This case cries out for a fair and just commutation. I once again call on President Bush to act."
A spokeswoman for state Rep. Rick Noriega of Houston, Cornyn's Democratic opponent in the Nov. 4 general election, said Noriega was on hurricane relief duty as a Reserve Army lieutenant colonel at Camp Mabry in Austin and unavailable for comment.
She said Noriega previously had not addressed Ramos' and Compean's imprisonment for trying to cover up their shooting of admitted drug dealer Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in February 2005 southwest of El Paso near Fabens.
The court said the agents' trial "was conducted fairly and without reversible error," affirming convictions on one count each of committing an act of violence by discharging a firearm and others of depriving Davila of his civil rights.
It said reversals for tampering with the Border Patrol's investigation "may not be of much moment to Ramos and Compean because we leave the major convictions with the major sentences untouched."
U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of San Antonio, who caught withering political flak for convictions obtained by assistants Debra Kanoff and Jose Luis Gonzalez, called on critics "to re-evaluate their positions in light of the court record and description of the evidence.
"The simple truth is Ramos and Compean shot 15 times at an unarmed man running away from them and posing no threat," said Sutton. "In America, law enforcement officers do not get to shoot unarmed suspects, lie about it and file official reports that are false.
"That's a crime and prosecutors cannot look the other way."
The Phoenix inmates' lawyers, Bob Baskett and David Botsford of Austin, hailed the tampering reversals but were otherwise disappointed. "Those should have never been in there because they colored the jury's entire consideration," Botsford told the AP.
Taking issue with the original trial court's jury instructions and appellate court reasoning about the gun issue, Baskett said, "The court is wrong on a couple of major points and we will file a motion to rehear them."
Davila, who escaped into Mexico the day he was shot but six months ago pleaded guilty to marijuana smuggling, testified against the agents at their February 2006 trial. Aldrete is awaiting sentencing.
Rejecting a re-trial for Ramos and Compean, the appellate judges said the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution does not permit officers to shoot a fleeing suspect unless he poses a threat. They were acquitted of attempted murder at the original trial after arguing their breaking of Border Patrol regulations was portrayed falsely as a violation of the law.
"We can surely debate whether there is an intuitive distinction between a violent criminal or drug trafficker using a gun and a police officer using a gun against a fleeing felon," Circuit Judges E. Grady Jolly, Patrick Higginbotham and Edward Prado wrote in their 46 page opinion.
"However, neither the statue nor cases make such a distinction. The Supreme Court firmly established the conduct for which Ramos and Compean were convicted by a jury of their peers violates the rights of the fleeing felon if he poses no threat to the officers or a danger to others."
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Texan wrote on Sep 16, 2008 8:58 AM:
More damage has been done to the United States under his administration since the beginning of our country then any other president.
georgie is for the one world government. he is not protecting the United States borders from illegal aliens. why is the oil company the only business not being hurt by the economy.
georgie is the worst president the United States has ever had. georgie is NOT a Texan. he is nothing but a yankee.. "