Agents Compean and Ramos were NOT on the list
President Bush recently issued 14 pardons and two sentence commutations.
Among those issued pardons and commutations were bank embezzlers, tax evaders and a rapper, John E. Forte, who was convicted of aiding and abetting possession with intent to distribute cocaine.
Agents Compean and Ramos were NOT on the list.
Such egregious neglect prompted Congressman Dana Rohrabacher to say:
“The fact that the president has neglected to free these men from their imprisonment while freeing drug dealers, embezzlers and other criminals is insulting to the American people. For the sake of justice, let’s hope this is not the last round of pardons and commutations.”
According to Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum:“The end of President Bush’s final term is quickly approaching. Less than two months remain until he will hand over his White House keys to Barack Obama, but we cannot let him leave office without resolving one very important issue: he must commute the prison sentences of convicted U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean!”
Conservative columnist Doug Patton called this travesty “a stench in the nostrils of every thinking American who loves justice.”
Compean and Ramos were convicted almost solely on the word of a known illegal alien drug smuggler who claimed that Compean and Ramos shot him in the butt while he was attempting to escape.
Incidentally, this smuggler was attempting to transport 743 pounds of marijuana into the United States at the time of the incident.
In exchange for his testimony, the smuggler was granted blanket immunity and allowed to come and go across the border almost at will and was actually caught attempting to transport more drugs into the United States while waiting to testify against Compean and Ramos.
The court WOULD NOT allow this fact to be submitted during the trial.
And, in what may be the greatest irony of this whole case, the smuggler was eventually convicted of the smuggling offenses that occurred AFTER he was granted immunity and was sentenced to LESS TIME than Compean and Ramos.
