Thread: Compean Re-Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison

Former border agent resentenced in border shooting

The Associated Press

Nov. 12, 2008, 1:55PM


EL PASO, Texas — A former Border Patrol agent convicted of shooting a fleeing drug smuggler was resentenced to his original 12 year prison term Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

A federal judge in El Paso resentenced Jose Alonso Compean to 10 years in prison for his conviction on a charge of using a weapon in the commission of a felony and another two years for assault and other charges, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Compean, along with former agent Ignacio Ramos, was convicted in 2006 of shooting admitted and now convicted drug smuggler Osvaldo Adlrete Davila and trying to cover up the incident.

The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans threw out some convictions against Ramos and Compean earlier this year, prompting Wednesday's new sentencing hearing. But the court upheld the majority of the case, including the weapons charge that brought a mandatory 10-year prison term.

Lawyers for Compean announced Wednesday they are also asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. A call seeking details to Bob Baskett, one of his attorneys, wasn't immediately returned.

Both men have been in prison since January 2007. Ramos, who was originally sentenced to 11 years and a day in prison, is scheduled to be resentenced in federal court in El Paso on Thursday.

The case against Compean and Ramos prompted a massive outcry from supporters of the former agents who argued that U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton should have focused his office's efforts on prosecuting illegal immigrant Osvaldo Aldrete Davila for his drug-smuggling activities.

Several members of Congress, including Rep. Ted Poe, have asked President Bush to pardon the former agents, or at least commute their sentences.

"He's certainly still asking the president to consider this in his traditional end-of-term pardoning," said Deeann Thigpen, a spokeswoman for Poe, R-Texas.

U.S. presidents traditionally issue pardons and sentence commutations in the final days in office. So far, though, Bush has not indicated whether he's considering acting on the agents' requests, Thigpen said.

Aldrete, who admitted smuggling several hundred pounds of marijuana on the day he was shot in 2005, pleaded guilty earlier this year to drug charges related to two smuggling attempts several months after he was shot in the buttocks while running away from Ramos and Compean. The same federal judge who sentenced the former agents ordered Aldrete to serve 9 1/2 years in prison.

Ramos and Compean argued during their trials that they shot Aldrete, whom they believed was armed, in self defense. Aldrete has denied having a weapon the day he was shot.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6108691.html

its been covered http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137916.html

Since I have no means to remove it, perhaps a moderator will do so or lock it. tx2st