Thread: Investor Business Daily gets Ramos/Compean

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticle ... nny,sutton

Johnny On The Spot In Agent Appeal
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, December 05, 2007 4:20 PM PT

Justice: The government admits that its drug-running star witness lied to investigators as the case against border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean — imprisoned for protecting our border — falls apart on appeal.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments this week in the appeal by U.S. Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean in what many believe was a grave miscarriage of justice involving two agents who were incarcerated for doing their assigned job of protecting the American people against criminals and intruders.

Judging by the questions from the panel of judges, it would seem they are not exactly enthralled with the case presented by U.S. Attorney for West Texas Johnny Sutton. It was Sutton who managed to persuade a jury that the two agents committed a federal gun crime and then conspired to cover it up.

The charges arose from the Feb. 17, 2005, shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, who tried to elude the two agents after driving a van near Fabens, Texas, that was found to hold 743 pounds of marijuana. He tried to flee back to Mexico and was shot in the buttocks by the agents who had reason to believe he was armed.

Sutton morphed this incident into a civil rights violation and the unlawful use of a firearm in the commission of a crime and convinced a jury to sentence Compean and Ramos to 12 and 11 years, respectively, in a federal prison. Worse yet (and critics of Guantanamo take note), they've been held in solitary confinement.

In exchange for testifying against the two agents, Davila was given immunity from prosecution for smuggling drugs on the day he was shot. Sutton kept from the jury the fact that before trial, Davila was arrested for a second drug-smuggling incident in October 2005. After Compean and Ramos were safely incarcerated, Sutton got around to indicting Davila for the second felony.

Judge Patrick Higginbotham, who heard the appeal with Judges Grady Jolly and Edward Prado, said evidence that Davila made multiple attempts to smuggle drugs across the border, evidence kept from the jury, "strikes me as very relevant."

"It does seem to me like the government overreacted here," added Jolly, noting the severity of the charges and the lengthy sentences prosecutors sought, as he questioned Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Stelmach.

Stelmach acknowledged that Davila told "some lies" to investigators, but said jurors rejected the agents' argument that they acted in self-defense when they shot at Davila. He did not note that by concealing evidence of a second offense, the jurors might have thought Davila was a one-time "mule" and not a career drug-running felon.

As Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., has pointed out, "The prime witness against these two border patrol agents was involved in another major load of drugs and the prosecution made a conscious decision to keep these facts from the jury."

"How," asked Compean's attorney, Bob Baskett, "could the U.S. attorney . . . take the word of an admitted illegal alien drug smuggler over two agents with 15 years of experience who have been involved in over 100 drug busts and never hurt anybody?

"It basically came down to (Davila's) word against theirs, and if he's shown to be a lying drug dealer, that might have influenced the way the jury saw the evidence."

Attorneys for the two agents also believe Sutton erred in concocting the charge of unlawful use of a firearm in the commission of a crime since they were authorized to possess, carry and use a firearm in the normal course of their duties.

With the possible exception of Durham, N.C., District Attorney Mike Nifong's railroading of the Duke lacrosse players, we have not seen perhaps a more egregious abuse of prosecutorial discretion. We hope the 5th Circuit will decide in their favor, but Ramos and Compean deserve more than a new trial.

They deserve to be pardoned. They deserve to be declared innocent by the president of the United States.

And Sutton deserves major JAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And who will pay for the crimes committed for this gross miscarrige of justice? Sutton? The judge? President Bush? Maybe all of them should. Someone must pay for the injustice brought on Ramos and Compean, Sutton for sure.

All of them should pay with jail time and don't forget Gonzales. He needs to pay dearly. These men should also never have to ever worry about money again.