Former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos (left) and Jose Alonso Compean (right) turn themselves in to federal authorities on Wednesday.
How Fox New is reporting the story
"President Bush promised to review a case for a possible pardon of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents serving time in prison for shooting a Mexican drug runner.
Bush said in an interview with KFOX-TV in El Paso, Texas, Thursday that he would "take a sober look at the case" as it works its way through the appeals system.
"There are standards that need to be met in law enforcement and according to a jury of their peers, these officers violated some standards," Bush said. "On this case, people need to take a tough look at the facts, the evidence a jury looked at, as well as [the] judge. And I will do the same thing."
Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean reported to prison Wednesday to begin serving their sentences for the 2005 non-fatal shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete Davila. Ramos faces 11 years and one day while Compean will serve 12 years. Davila fled to Mexico after he was shot in the buttocks and later admitted he was transporting over 700 pounds of marijuana in the U.S. illegally."
What White House Spokeman, Tony Snow, and the Washington Times (that's Times, not 'Post') said just last week
"The government brought the charges after Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, a Mexican national, agreed to testify against the agents in exchange for a grant of immunity in a potential drug case. Ramos and Compean found 743 pounds of marijuana in a van Mr. Aldrete-Davila abandoned near Fabens, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Mr. Aldrete-Davila was shot after he ignored efforts by the agents to stop the van. Court records show he jumped from the vehicle and ran south to the Rio Grande. Although wounded, Mr. Aldrete-Davila crossed the border and escaped in a waiting van.
Mr. Snow would not comment on a pardon yesterday when asked about the case, but said the government is not coddling a drug dealer.
"We think it's incumbent to go after drug dealers, and we also think that it's vitally important to make sure that we provide border security so our people are secure," he said. "We also believe that the people who are working to secure that border themselves obey the law."
The spokesman said the agents picked up their shell casings after the shooting and didn't make the proper report -- both violations of regulations.
"Now, at the time this happened, they did not know if he was an illegal. They did not know that there were 700 pounds of marijuana. They didn't know any of those things," Mr. Snow said.
In a statement released as the case proceeded, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton said he prosecuted the agents "because they had fired their weapons at a man who had attempted to surrender by holding his open hands in the air, at which time Agent Compean attempted to hit the man with the butt of Compean's shotgun, causing the man to run in fear of what the agents would do to him next."
He said both agents saw the man was not armed."
This is U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton. Yeah, I know, he looks like Opie - and he's just as trustworthy.I saw John Sutton totally shut-up and smack-down, both Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity - literally stopped both of them in their tracks - last night when he told both of those clowns what the 'evidence' showed and what 12 jurors agreed upon. Okay.... I'm busted, I flip it over to O'Reilly and Hannity & Colmes once in awhile.
But Sutton very calmly laid out the fact that both agents, Ramos and Compean, knew the guy wasn't armed, shot 15 rounds at the guy as he was running away, hid the bullet casings, and lied in their report about the incident.
Cops aren't allowed to shoot unarmed people in the back. John Sutton's office has reviewed something like "19 similiar shootings" on that border, four that resulted in death, and in every one of those cases, the agents were cleared. So why did Ramos and Compean cover-up the crime scene and why did they deliberately lie in their report, if Aldrete-Davila really had a gun?
If your life is not in danger, regardless of if you're a cop or not, you cannot shoot a person in the back who is running away from you. It's not fucking deer season out there.
Twelve years? Hey, the only reason that guy isn't dead is because they're bad shots.
They'll get half off for good behavior and be out in 6.
