Thread: White House sidesteps questions on freeing border agents

White House sidesteps questions on freeing border agents
By RICHARD S. DUNHAM Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
July 30, 2008, 5:50PM
20Comments WASHINGTON- Under increasing pressure from congressional Republicans to free two imprisoned border patrol agents, President Bush is showing no sign of hurrying his decision.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino on Wednesday sidestepped a question about Texas Sen. John Cornyn's demand that Bush commute Ignacio Ramos' 12-year sentence and Jose Compean's 11-year term. The agents were convicted of charges arising from the shooting of an unarmed drug smuggler near El Paso, and their sentences were increased because they were found guilty of committing a crime with a firearm.

"There is a process in which people in our country can ask a president of the United States for a commutation of their sentence," Perino told reporters, "and that process can take place if those individuals want it to."

Cornyn, a San Antonio Republican, led an outpouring of conservative pressure on the White House this week after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans rejected the agents' appeal.

The senator called their trial a "clear case of prosecutorial overreach and a case where the sentence does not match the crime."

Ramos and Compean still can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. If that fails, Bush is the only person who could shorten their sentences.

Republican lawmakers, conservative media personalities and critics of illegal immigration have made the two border patrol agents' case a cause celebre. They say the agents were acting in self-defense against a dangerous drug smuggler who had illegally entered the U.S.

Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, introduced legislation this week that would prohibit prosecutors from seeking enhanced penalties for gun crimes against law enforcement officials acting in the line of duty.

Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, said he was outraged that the agents had received harsh prison sentences "for defending our border."

"They are being held as political prisoners," he said, "and their sentences should be overturned."

The convictions against the agents stemmed from the Feb. 17, 2005, shooting of Oswaldo Aldrete Davila.

Aldrete, an illegal immigrant, had crossed the Rio Grande and picked up a van southeast of El Paso loaded with marijuana. After a car chase toward the Rio Grande, Aldrete ran from the agents and was shot in the buttocks with a bullet from Ramos' gun.

According to trial testimony, the agents didn't report the shooting to supervisors, and Compean picked up his shell casings from the area near the river as part of a cover-up of the crime scene.

richard.dunham@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5916129.html

Side-stepping and secrecy have been the basis of this administration so I don't expect them to change now at the end of their careers. How many days until the elections?

No American citizen is safe from false prosecution as long as Ramos and Compean are in prison. If our government can treat border guards like they are “political prisonersâ€

"There is a process in which people in our country can ask a president of the United States for a commutation of their sentence," Perino told reporters, "and that process can take place if those individuals want it to."
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umm Ms Perino, did scooter libby go through the same process for commutation before he even served a day in prison or before his appeal was heard???? IF NOT, shut the hell up with this stupid line. WE KNOW BETTER

Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, introduced legislation this week that would prohibit prosecutors from seeking enhanced penalties for gun crimes against law enforcement officials acting in the line of duty.


FINALLY! I wondered when or if someone would do this. Thank goodness the light came on in somebody's brain! .

Originally Posted by vortex

Side-stepping and secrecy have been the basis of this administration so I don't expect them to change now at the end of their careers. How many days until the elections?

Bushwhacker’s "sidestepping" reminds me of the movie "The Best Little House in Texas" where Charles Durning played the governor of Texas and performed a song and dance in the governor's mansion to the song "Sidestep" while not answering, sidestepping if you will, a question from Burt Reynolds.

I can just imagine the Bushwhacker practicing the same song and dance in the Texas governor mansion and the White House. The Bushwhacker could probably win the part of the Texas governor today from Durning, but only in a movie!

it seems the chronicle has reposted the story later in the evening and
the new story only has three posts instead of the near 30 when i last read it

Originally Posted by jamesw62

it seems the chronicle has reposted the story later in the evening and
the new story only has three posts instead of the near 30 when i last read it

They have done this more then once, all that is displayed when I attempt to link to the article is a blank screen.