Prosecutorial Malpractice: It Never Should Have Gotten As Far As “Pardons” - With Videos
A ‘dear friend’s’ justice
It is generally customary for United States attorneys general serving under a previous administration to submit their resignations to the incoming president. The first resignation President-elect Barack Obama should accept is that of Johnny Sutton, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas.
Mr. Sutton has a long friendship and working relationship with President Bush, as his associate deputy attorney general, a policy coordinator for the Bush-Cheney transition team and the criminal justice policy director for then-Gov. George W. Bush. Mr. Bush called him his “dear friend” at a July 19, 2007, town hall meeting in Nashville, Tenn. We recall Mr. Bush saying one of the mistakes he made in his first term was placing too much trust in and loyalty to his friends. If that is the case, his loyalty to Mr. Sutton - in the form of not offering pardons to Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean - is certainly a grave error of his second term.
Ramos and Compean are serving 11 years and 12 years respectively, in the shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, an illegal alien and drug dealer, while he tried to flee back into Mexico to avoid arrest. Aldrete-Davila was the star witness in Mr. Sutton’s case. He told prosecutors that his narcotics trafficking at the time he was shot was a one-time thing to help pay his mother’s medical bills. He was later charged and convicted for smuggling drugs in a separate incident during Ramos and Compean’s trial, but Mr. Sutton and his team successfully petitioned the judge to have the drug dealer’s illegal actions sealed and kept from the jury.
Amazingly, Ramos and Compean weren’t exactly charged with shooting Aldrete-Davila. They were charged with violating Title 18, Section 924 (c) of the U.S. Code, “discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.” The statute carries a minimum 10-year sentence. The gun charge was not part of their initial indictment, but was added later when it became clear Mr. Sutton and his team likely couldn’t get a conviction for two border guards shooting a fleeing drug smuggler, and after the two agents refused to admit guilt and take a plea bargain. This is the first time in U.S. history that such a charge has been levied against law enforcement officers while acting in an official capacity, but somehow Mr. Sutton made it stick.
Ramos and Compean have served two years already in solitary confinement - standard for convicted law enforcement officers. Ramos tried to serve his sentence in general population at the Federal Corrections Complex in Yazoo City, Miss., but was assaulted within 10 days. He was only moved to Phoenix, Ariz., after six months of pressure form Congress. Compean is held at the FCC in Elkton, Ohio. Supporters for the two told us that they have all but given up on a pardon and are now calling for a simple commutation of their sentences.
It is clear Mr. Sutton is a slick prosecutor - especially considering how he made this case stick even on appeal - but this conviction was a wretched one. Mr. Bush should pardon Ramos and Campean, despite any hurt feelings Mr. Sutton may harbor or good-old-boy ties the president has with this U.S. Attorney.
Border patrol agents hope for pardon
Sara A. Carter
Monica Ramos and Patty Compean still have hope.
It is the slim hope that outgoing President Bush will, in his administration’s final hours, commute the sentences of their husbands.
Border Patrol agent Ignacio “Nacho” Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were sentenced to 10 and 11 years in prison,respectively, in October 2006 in the nonfatal shooting of a now-convicted Mexican drug smuggler. They have been in federal prison since January 2007.
The pair’s conviction led to an outcry across the nation, and nearly a half-million signatures were collected for a presidential pardon. The notoriety of the case also forced prosecutors with the Western District of Texas U.S. Attorney’s office to explain publicly why the two men were convicted of violating the civil rights of the fleeing suspect.
“Every day I believe that president will do the right thing,” Mrs. Ramos told The Washington Times by phone from her home in Texas. “Our three sons have been devastated by this; there is nothing that can replace the time that has been already lost.”
The president, however, declined to discuss any possible plans for final pardons or commutations at his final press conference.
“We don’t discuss pardons or commutations or where those may be in the process,” said White House deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel.
Mrs. Compean understands lost time. Her youngest child, David Antonio, was only 3 months old when her husband was convicted, and the child has little connection with his father, she said. The other two children, she said, are learning to live without their father.
“The outcome of this depends on what we do with what we have right now,” Mrs. Compean said. “Even if George Bush doesn’t commute the sentences, we still have a chance with Obama. Who knows, maybe some more information will come to light. I’m not giving up, and I’ve found a way to make peace within myself.”
The shooting occurred in February 2005, after a vehicle-and-foot chase along the Mexican border in Fabens, Texas. Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, who was fleeing a van he ditched near the border filled with 743 pounds of marijuana, was shot in the side of his buttocks.
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