Border Rat Patrol -Free Ramos & Compean

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, November 14, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Justice: Two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug smuggler have been resentenced for the crime of protecting the borders of the United States. Mr. President, you do not have the right to remain silent.



Former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are 20 months into their sentences for shooting drug dealer 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.

Last week the two agents had their resentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cordone. The hearing was prompted by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' throwing out a minor obstruction of justice count. Ramos and Compean were resentenced to virtually their original 11- and 12-year sentences, the bulk of which is a mandatory sentence of 10 years for the use of a firearm in the commission of a crime.

Ramos and Compean were charged under section 924(c) of the criminal code. This section is intended to punish felons who use firearms in the commission of a crime, not law enforcement officers attempting to apprehend lawbreakers.

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, who plans to introduce clarifying legislation, says: "It was never the intent of Congress to have U/S.C. Section 924 (c) apply to law enforcement officers."

Compean and Ramos thought they were fulfilling their duties on Feb. 17, 2005, when they shot an allegedly unarmed Aldrete Davila as he was fleeing back into Mexico. They were also convicted of violating Aldrete Davila's civil rights and trying to conceal their "crime."

From the beginning U.S. Attorney for West Texas Johnny Sutton took the word of Aldrete Davila over anything the two agents had to say. In exchange for testifying against the two agents, Davila was given immunity from prosecution for smuggling drugs on the day he was shot. He was also given a border pass card issued by the Department of Homeland Security.

Aldrete Davila showed his gratitude by breaking his immunity agreement in exchange for testifying against the two agents by trying to smuggle another 753 pounds of weed into the U.S. the following October. It is that second incident that Sutton successfully concealed from the jury.

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." At the original trial Judge Cardone ruled that the defense could not raise the issue of the second drug load or ask Aldrete Davila about it.

Incredibly, in an Orwellian ruling, the appeals court said: "The exclusion of evidence relating to the size of the marijuana load and Aldrete-Davila's alleged involvement in drug-trafficking events of October 2005 did not violate the defendants' Sixth Amendment rights to present a complete defense nor did it deny them a proper examination of a witness against them." It didn't?

Instead of being exposed as a liar and a career criminal, Aldrete Davila was allowed by prosecutor Sutton to present himself as an inexperienced drug smuggler who only committed the one offense, and then only because he had lost his commercial driver's license in Mexico, and needed money to buy medicine for his sick mother.

Ramos' attorney, David Botsford, says a clemency petition for his client is pending with the Office of the Pardon Attorney. Ramos has been held in solitary confinement under conditions liberals would not tolerate at Guantanamo Bay for his protection. He was assaulted his first week in prison.

With the possible exception of Durham, N.C., D.A. Mike Nifong's railroading of the Duke University lacrosse players, we have not seen a more egregious abuse of prosecutorial discretion. Ramos and Compean deserve to be pardoned. They also deserve to be declared innocent by the president of the United States.