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Category: News Author : Duncan Riley Posted: January 19, 2009
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Bush Issues Commutations For Ex-border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean


ignacio-ramos-and-jose-compean

Outgoing US President George W. Bush has issued commutations for two former U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted in 2006 of shooting an illegal alien who was smuggling drugs.

Ramos and Compean were sentenced to 11 and 12 years respectively for shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks while he was trying to flee along the Texas border. Davila admitted smuggling several hundred pounds of marijuana on the day he was shot and pleaded guilty last year to drug charges related to other smuggling attempts.

The prison sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean will now end on March 20.

“The president has reviewed the circumstances of this case as a whole and the conditions of confinement and believes the sentences they received are too harsh and that they, and their families, have suffered enough for their crimes,” said a senior administration official reported CNN.

The announcement gained bipartisan support.










Comments


2 Archived Responses to “ Bush Issues Commutations For Ex-border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean ”

  1. Citizen
    Jan 19, 2009

    They should have been pardoned and returned to their jobs and given back pay, not just having their sentences commuted. But I guess this is better than nothing.

  2. ontarioemperor
    Jan 19, 2009

    In addition to the play that this case received in the media (Los Angeles radio station KFI has been all over it through the years), political pressure from the Texas Congressional delegation probably played a significant role. Robert Scoble's buddy John Culberson released this statement: “Last Thursday I secured the signatures of 29 (all but three) Texas Representatives, two former Representatives and both of our Texas Senators on a letter to the President Bush requesting that he commute the sentences of Agents Ramos and Compean. I hand-delivered the letter to the White House on Thursday night to ensure the President would see it before he left office.”