Archive for January 19th, 2009
In Short – Ramos and Compean Sentences Commuted!
I’ve been seriously upset over the last few years over the fact that Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were put in prison for doing their jobs.
If you don’t recall, Ramos and Compean were the two Border Patrol agents who shot Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the butt when he was running away from his van, loaded with marijuana. They fired on Davila when they believed that he was armed.
The prosecutor, Johnny Sutton, made the point that there was no evidence connecting Davila to the drugs, yet a number of complaints, particularly ethical, showed that Sutton’s presentation of information was willfully misleading.
In any case, Ramos and Compean were put in *solitary confinement* in a *maximum-security* facility for their actions, for 11 and 12 years for their punishment, based on the words of a known Mexican drug smuggler, who was granted immunity to testify against our agents.
The whole case stunk to high heaven. It still does, but at least the extreme punishment is over.
I’m glad that President Bush commuted their sentences and will be setting Ramos and Compean free. At the worst, they should have been reprimanded for acting without orders, moving their spent shell casings, and not properly reporting fired shots. But even so, the punishment was way too severe. Their lives are already ruined and it will take them a long time to restore them…
…for just doing what they thought was right in the heat of the moment.
I truly hate the entire legal profession for this. It’s abuses of the system that punish good people and let the evil go free.
Thank you, Mr. President!
