FAMM Message to Congress: Border Agents Shouldn't Get Mandatory Minimum Sentences, But Neither Should Anyone Else

WASHINGTON, June 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Three years ago, Texas
border agents Ignacios Ramos and Jose Compean fired 15 shots at an unarmed
Mexican drug smuggler, striking him once as he tried to flee back to
Mexico. Both agents are now serving mandatory minimum prison sentences of
11 and 12 years for the shooting.
These cases and others involving mandatory minimum sentences will be
discussed on June 26 at a hearing at 9:30 a.m. before the House of
Representatives Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland
Security. The president of the National Border Patrol Council will argue
that Ramos and Compean should not be subject to mandatory minimum
sentences. Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) agrees.
"Congress needs to get help for its addiction to mandatory sentencing
laws. The sentencing judge in the border agent cases could figure out that
the individuals and their crime were reprehensible without the mandatory
minimum. Judges know the facts of the case and can deliver just punishments
without Congress tying their hands at sentencing," said Julie Stewart,
founder and president of FAMM.
Mandatory minimums prevented just punishment in the case of another of
tomorrow's witnesses. FAMM member Serena Nunn was sentenced to 151/2 years
in federal prison when she was 19 years old for her minor role in her
boyfriend's drug offense. The judge wanted to give her less prison time but
he was handcuffed by the mandatory sentence required under federal law.
U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell, another witness, will relate his
frustration with mandatory minimum sentences that forced him to sentence a
first-time marijuana dealer to 55 years in prison for guns that were
present during his drug transactions but never used.
Remarkably, the hearing is the first on mandatory minimum sentences
since 1993, even though 72,000 people are sentenced federally each year,
many of them to mandatory minimums. "Injustice has been running on
autopilot for two decades and finally Rep. Bobby Scott is taking the
wheel," said Stewart.
FAMM president Julie Stewart, and vice president and general counsel
Mary Price, are available on Tuesday, June 26 to discuss the hearing and
what it means for sentencing reform and the prisoners serving mandatory
minimums.
Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) is a national non-partisan
nonprofit organization that promotes just sentencing policies. For
information visit http://www.famm.org.

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