Thread: Border Patrol Agents vs Illegal in shooting

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_4508443


Facing jail time
Agents' lawyer seeks new trial in shooting case
By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times

Former U.S. Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos embraced his wife, Monica Ramos, on Tuesday, two days before he is set to be sentenced. Ramos could receive up to 15 years in prison for shooting a drug smuggler who was entering the United States illegally. (Mark Lambie / El Paso Times)Three members of the jury that convicted two former El Paso Border Patrol agents of shooting a drug smuggler in the buttocks last year said they were misled into finding them guilty, according to a motion filed late Tuesday, two days before the agents are to be sentenced.
Mary Stillinger, the lawyer for one of the agents, Ignacio Ramos, thought the jurors' statements should be grounds for setting the verdict aside and ordering a new trial for Ramos and fellow agent Jose Alonso Compean.

The men are scheduled to be sentenced Thursday and face a 10-year mandatory sentence.

It was not known Tuesday night whether U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone would consider the motion for a new trial before the sentencing. Officials of the U.S.
attorney's office said they had not reviewed the new motion and could not comment on it.
The three jurors, identified in court documents as Robert Gourley, Claudia Torres and Edine Woods, said they voted not guilty almost to the end of two days of deliberations.

"I did not think the defendants were guilty of the assaults and civil rights violations," Woods wrote in a sworn affidavit.
Compean and Ramos were found guilty of assault with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, a civil-rights charge and obstruction of justice in the Feb. 17, 2005, shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete Davila near Fabens.

Stillinger said she saw some jurors crying after the guilty verdict and later got in touch with them.

Gourley, a Northeast special- education teacher, and Torres said in affidavits that the foreman of the jury told them that Judge Cardone would not accept a hung jury. And Woods said an affidavit that she heard the same statement but could not remember which juror said it.

"Essentially ... they conceded their votes, believing that they did not have the option to stick to their guns and prevent a unanimous verdict," Stillinger wrote in the motion.

Gourley said that he thought the foreman was relating something he heard directly from the judge, and when he found no mention on hung juries in the court's printed instructions, "I had no reason to doubt the foreman," he said in the affidavit.

After the trial, Gourley told reporters that he felt pressured by other jurors who wanted to resume their normal lives after more than two weeks of trial. He also said he thought 10 years in prison was a grossly inappropriate punishment for the agents.

"Had we had the option of a hung jury, I truly believe the outcome may have been different," he said in the affidavit.

Flores said in her affidavit that she believed the foreman because, "he was very experienced in serving on juries. I felt like he knew something about the judge that we did not know. É I did not think that Mr. Ramos or Mr. Compean was guilty of the assaults and civil rights violations."

The third juror, Woods, wrote in an affidavit, "I don't remember exactly what it was that made me change my vote to guilty on these charges, but I know I was very influenced by my belief, based on the other juror's statement, that we could not have a hung jury. I think I might not have changed my vote to guilty if I had known that was an option."

Great, these agents can't even protect our borders from illegal smugglers. They will even face jail time for doing their jobs.

Yes..

We have to wonder?? How can the border patrol
agents even feel confident in doing their job anymore?
They have clearly been sent the message that they are
no longer allowed to do their job.

Ramos and Compean are going to be sentenced on Thursday.
I'm in Southern Cali and a radio station here yesterday interviewed
Ramos, his wife, and his father in law. I still can't believe this whole
thing?? Those poor people. A minimum of 10 yrs in a maximum
security prison..possibly 20 yrs! He has 3 kids.

Well we can all be sure this will send a clear message to all those
scumbag drug dealers that they can get away with anything. Especially
winning a lawsuit for 5 million dollars! This is just so unbelievable I don't
know what else to say.

There has been a website set up for anyone wanting
to learn updates and for those who would like to support them.

Go here: http://www.agentramos.com