Posted on Wed, Dec. 24, 2008
Former Border Patrol agents seek last-minute help from Bush



By ANNA M. TINSLEY

Two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in Texas in 2005 are among the thousands of people seeking last-minute leniency from President George W. Bush before he leaves office Jan. 20.
The case of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean has drawn attention as lawmakers and others have asked Bush to commute their prison sentences.

"I have no crystal ball, but I am guardedly optimistic that President Bush will do the right thing and commute part or all of their 10-year sentences before he leaves office," said David Botsford, an Austin attorney representing Ramos.

Presidents have the power to issue pardons and commute sentences. On Monday, Bush issued 19 pardons and commuted one sentence, which means he has given out 190 pardons and nine commutations during his eight years in office.

Texas plea

Supporters of Ramos and Compean maintain that the two were overzealously prosecuted by the office of U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of San Antonio and that the sentences were overly harsh.

Appeals have upheld the convictions of Ramos and Compean for shooting Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, who was trying to flee back to Mexico after abandoning a van carrying 743 pounds of marijuana near Fabens not far from El Paso, and trying to cover it up. Aldrete-Davila testified at the agents’ trial.

Ramos received an 11-year sentence; Compean received 12.

Botsford said he has asked that Ramos’ sentence, of which he has already served the minimum one year and one day, be commuted.

"Getting him out of prison is the most important thing to him and his family," Botsford said. "He was brutally assaulted within the first week he was incarcerated in a federal correction institution and has been in protective custody ever since.

"The conditions are terrible for him," he said. "He is denied the normal privileges such as phone calls and visitation rights, and no one should have to serve the better part of 10 years in solitary confinement."

Dallas attorney Bob Baskett, who represents Compean, could not be reached for comment.

Calls for clemency

Several members of Congress, including Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who said the agents’ imprisonment was a "miscarriage of justice," have asked Bush to pardon the agents or commute their sentences.

Now that the clock is ticking before Bush leaves office, others are joining in the call. Among them:

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., sent Bush a letter this month telling him that the justice system failed Compean and Ramos and asking him to commute their sentences and give them pardons.

Rep. Dana Rochbacher, R-Calif., wrote in HumanEvents.com that "the American people cannot seem to reconcile how two law enforcement officers whose job was to protect our borders from illegal aliens, drug smugglers, human traffickers, and terrorists could end up sitting in solitary confinement . . . for shooting and wounding an illegal alien in the process of smuggling over a million dollars worth of drugs across our Southern border in Texas."

WorldNetDaily started an online petition, signed by more than 14,000 people, asking for the men’s freedom as well. "These are the pardons or sentence commutations the American people want to see more than any other," said Joseph Farah, the WND editor who started the petition. "We don’t want to see any more drug dealers freed. We don’t want to see any other millionaires get pardons. We don’t want to see any other well-connected crooks have their sentences overturned."

The Minuteman political action committee has an online petition asking Bush to pardon the men. The group says the men were prosecuted to appease the Mexican government. And they say it was a "critical failure of the U.S. justice system."

"Fellow border security groups have joined us in rallying on this one poignant issue, which serves as the emblem of the Bush Administration’s failed immigration policy . . . the scandalous prosecution and imprisonment of [Ramos and Compean]," according to an e-mail from the group. "Now it’s our turn to demand a full presidential pardon of Ramos and Compean."

http://www.star-telegram.com/238/story/1110271.html