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December 8, 2007
Another bipartisan call for President Bush to commute border agent sentences
As detailed in this Washington Times article, "Rep. Bill Delahunt, Massachusetts Democrat who heads the subcommittee on international organizations, human rights and oversight" has called upon President Bush to "immediately commute the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted in the shooting of a drug-smuggling suspect." This story from CNSNews.com provides more details on the bipartisan calls for a commutation in this case:
Two Democrats and one Republican introduced a House resolution Thursday calling for the release of two jailed ex-Border Patrol agents by Christmas. The former agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, were sentenced to 11 and 12 years respectively in federal prison for shooting and wounding a suspected illegal alien drug smuggler in the rear.
"President Bush can correct a gross miscarriage of justice with the stroke of a pen," said Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), who co-sponsored a resolution to commute the sentences of the two men. "This resolution will put Congress on the record demanding that he do just that," Delahunt continued. "I hope that the president will allow these men to see their families in time for Christmas." Delahunt was joined by Reps. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) in sponsoring the legislation....
Last month, the suspected drug smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila was arrested for attempting to smuggle additional drugs into the country even while he had legal immunity because of the earlier case, in which he testified against the two Border agents.
Some prior posts about the Border Agents case:
December 8, 2007 at 02:35 PM | Permalink
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Comments
I hope President Bush payes attention. I wonder where his compassionate conservatism go? He is not is not economically conservative that's for sure,a nd he certainly not compassionate, Rodney Hulin can attest to that.
Perhaps if Ramos and Compean suffer an accident or try to kill themselves due to their injustice, and it become almost certain that they will die, maybe then Bush will pardon them.
Posted by: EJ | Dec 8, 2007 2:58:48 PM
If only there were similar bipartisan calls to commute the sentences of less politically-popular criminals.
Posted by: S.cotus | Dec 8, 2007 3:19:40 PM
Bush is asleep at the switch he is so out of touch with what is going on it is scary. This is so bad and was not called for. They should make sure these two are home for christmas and they should make sure the us attorney that handle the case is put in jail. he should see what it is like where he sent these two men.
Posted by: | Dec 8, 2007 7:21:34 PM
Why should the US Attorney be in jail? This seems quite a bizarre analysis for the actions of a prosecutor that were 1) legally undertaken; 2) analyzed by a judge; and 3) resulted in a conviction by a jury. Perhaps there were defects in the trial, but those can be raised on appeal. As far as I can tell, there is no indication of bad faith. Moreover, at some level, Main Justice did approve this prosecution. So, perhaps you want the jurors, judges, attorneys, and everyone at DOJ, so that a couple of convicted people can go free? For whatever reason, we don't do that in the US. Nor should we.
What we have here is two officers who have been convicted. They are therefore criminals. Perhaps their sentence is higher than you would like it, and maybe the law was construed wrong. However, it seems strange that the only remedy for this is presidential intervention, when there may be a valid judicial way that would provide similarly situated people with a remedy.
Anyway, I am not going to “call” for any executive action unless people start “calling” for executive action for a host of other people with unduly large sentences.
Posted by: S.cotus | Dec 10, 2007 6:55:28 AM
"Anyway, I am not going to “call” for any executive action unless people start “calling” for executive action for a host of other people with unduly large sentences."
Wow, I cannot believe you actually care. It must be the Christmas spirit. There must be a G** after all.
Posted by: | Dec 10, 2007 9:58:41 AM
"Anyway, I am not going to “call” for any executive action unless people start “calling” for executive action for a host of other people with unduly large sentences."
Wow, I cannot believe you actually care. It must be the Christmas spirit. There must be a G** after all.
Posted by: | Dec 10, 2007 9:58:56 AM
Look on the bright side, today's decision in Kimbrough actually might be good for these convicted felons.
Posted by: S.cotus | Dec 10, 2007 10:07:57 AM
