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Senate criticizes sentences for border agents
WASHINGTON - Plunging into a case that has enraged border-enforcement activists, Senate leaders Tuesday denounced 11- and 12-year prison sentences handed down to two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting an unarmed Mexican drug dealer. Calling the jail time given in October to former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean "excessive" and "extreme," lawmakers led by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein challenged a series of decisions made by prosecutors in the case. "I'm one that believes this sentence is disproportionate. What we can do about that remains another subject," Feinstein said, stopping short of urging a pardon while presiding over a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the case. Several other lawmakers, however - including Reps. Duncan Hunter, R-San Diego, and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach/Long Beach - have attacked the harsh treatment of the officers and said the agents deserve to have their sentences commuted. "As we now see, Scooter Libby can be set free. Two Border Patrol agents who languish in solitary confinement, whose lives are in danger, those lives don't count a bit with this administration," Rohrabacher said. "This whole episode stinks to high heaven." Ramos, 37, and Compean, 28, were sentenced to 11- and 12-year prison terms, respectively, for shooting Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, a Mexican national, in the buttocks as he fled into Mexico after abandoning 743 pounds of marijuana near Fabens, Texas. The former agents also were found guilty of tampering with evidence for failing to report the shooting. Compean additionally was convicted of tampering with evidence for collecting shell casings in what prosecutors said was another attempt to cover up the incident. Tuesday's hearing at times took on the tone of an unofficial retrial, as senators questioned the U.S. attorney's decision not to charge the drug smuggler, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, and to give him a "humanitarian visa" in addition to immunity in exchange for testimony against the border agents. Lawmakers also took issue with the prosecutor's decision to charge the agents with using a weapon during the commission of a crime. The charge carries a mandatory 10-year sentence and is traditionally used against drug dealers. "Somebody somewhere concluded that discipline needed to be applied to Border Patrol agents," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said, calling the agents' punishment "excessive." Texas U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton defended his prosecutors and laid blame at the feet of the border agents. "I do not take lightly the decision to prosecute a law-enforcement officer for using his gun," Sutton said. But, he said, Ramos and Compean "deliberately shot an unarmed man in the back without justification, covered it up and lied about it." He maintained prosecutors were unable to go after the drug smuggler because the agents - in an attempt to cover up the shooting - destroyed the crime scene, including evidence linking Aldrete-Davila to the drugs. "Had these guys done their job, (Aldrete-Davila) would have been in prison," Sutton said. "If our agents had just come up to us and said, `A doper just pointed a gun at us and we shot him,' we would be moving mountains to get that guy." Senators remained skeptical and irate. Several said they want to see Congress clarify the circumstances of when the weapons charge could be used against a law-enforcement officer who used a gun on the job. Feinstein said her staff has found only one case in which the charge had been used against law-enforcement officers. "I think it's pretty clear that it was designed to be used against drug traffickers to try to encourage the drug trafficker not to carry a weapon, and here it's used in a different way," she said. She vowed to look into possible changes. "I think this really is a case of prosecutorial overreaction in charging," she said. "We're going to take a good look at this section of the code and see if there is any amendment that might be considered." Posted by: 2007-07-18 |
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