Last Tuesday I posted saying that Pres. Bush should pardon Ramos and Compean. I have now decided I was wrong in asking that. Here’s why:
Last Tuesday Pat Patterson commented,
I couldn’t disagree more, both lied about the fight and the struggle, one returned and buried the casings a 1/4 mile away, both claimed that they were being supervised on the radio yet most of the reinforcements were anywhere from 8 to 12 miles away.
They both lied about whether Aldarte was shot even though trackers follwed his blood trail across the border the next morning and they did not file the required discharge of firearm report and they couldn’t convince a jury of their innocence and have since lost every appeal. A jury of locals who returned a verdict of guilty within an hour of being sequestered.
They beat Aldarte, one shot Aldarte they both lied in their sworn statements and lied under oath and most importantly no one in the Border Patrol has complained about the conviction.
Pat emailed yesterday and he explains the reasons why Ramos and Compean should not be pardoned:
Since a few months after 9/2005 there has been a steady drumbeat of pleadings from most notably Lou Dobbs of CNN, TJ Bonner of the union representing the Border Patrol agents and Jerome Corsi, of Unfit for Command, who are pushing the idea that Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were innocent of shooting an unarmed drug smuggler named Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila near Fabens Texas on the Rio Grande River. This is much like the Left’s undying fascination in probing for the littlest of contradiction in evidence or testimony and basically ignoring the facts of the case against Mumia Al-Jabar. The case of Ramos and Compean is generally repeated over and over by many that have never read any of the articles written at the time or any of the factual reconstructions of the shooting.
The best recounting of the trial is from an article by Pamela Coloff in the Texas Monthly of 9/2007 that provides a narrative of the shooting and the subsequent glossing over of the facts of the case.
Badges of Dishonor (available with free registration).
Then there is also a point by point refutation, of the wilder pro Ramos and Compean arguments, by the US Attorney for the Western District of Texas and lead prosecutor Johnny Sutton. His response came in a DOJ press release in April of 2007 after the first appeal and when at least 2 pardon bills had introduced in Congress. Which were subsequently tabled this year when Congress decided to spend Christmas at home. The last attempt is a petition that demands commutation of the sentences by the outgoing president. But considering the fate of Isaac Toussie’s pardon it would not be wise to hold one’s breath waiting for a commutation of the nearly ten year sentences.
The last link is from an article from the online magazine Salon by Alex Koppelman, 9/2007, who after a brief recounting of the shooting investigates the characters who have taken advantage of the press’s laziness and the faith many have in the accuracy of the blogs the regularly read.
But to me the most damning thing of all is the utter depravity of ex-agent Ignacio Ramos when complaining about his sentence remarked, ” If anything , Compean and I should have gotten an administrative punishment–if that. As for Aldrete-Davila, you know what? …He got what he deserved?”
Fausta-I hope this is what you can use. If you need to make changes go ahead or I’ll rewrite if necessary.
I urge all my visitors to read these articles, especially the US Attorney’s office document. In view of this information, I was wrong in asking that they be pardoned. They shouldn’t be.
Special thanks to Pat for his reply.
Let’s commute their sentence or bring proper charges – like conspiracy.
Liars and lying to a broken sentence hardly warrant all this. Ramos and Compean may not be moral figures, but what they did (the very action) wasn’t so far-fetched.
There is a middle.
Ali, could you please expand on what you mean by proper charges? I’d really like to hear more on that.
Fausta, I am going to link to your post. Hope you are planning a discussion one day this week? Truth sometimes hurts, but but is necessary, and thanks for having the honor to admit when you are mistaken. I was right on that bandwagon calling for their pardon as well, and was mystified as to why it hadn’t happened yet. Now I know. Take care of that cold, sister!
Fausta-Thanks for the opportunity to post a dissenting opinion. I’ll be glad to participate in any further discussion of this event. I too believed the opposite, that R&C were at best innocent and at worst negligent and only did further research when I heard the shooting described as in accord with the SCOTUS decision in re Nagle and also that the shooting took place in the dark which was obviously not true as the first description of the smuggler’s van was around noon.
I followed the case from the very beginning and continued throughout to the Fifth Circuit appeal. I tried to obtain hearing and trial documents very early in the case, but I wasn’t successful at the time. The story of Aldrete-Davila, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean is fairly straightforward and not difficult to understand. The problem arises when most people make their minds up beforehand and there seems to be no appeal to reason or law beyond that point.
R&C were charged, convicted and sentenced properly. It has been a very hard thing for many Americans to accept, but it is the truth. The DA, Johnny Sutton, may have other cases which deserve more scrutiny, but this one was right and correct, by the book.
Good point. Here’s my 2 cents.
http://themaverickmuse.com/commentary/the-trouble-ramos-compean/
i dont know who pat patterson is and do not care but everything he posted is completely wrong.
first of all there were no trackers on the scene until the investigator for DHS went out there a MONTH LATER.
Secondly it is not the job of Ramos, Compean , or any other border patrol agent to file paerwork when guns have been discharged. that is the job of the SUPERVISORS. who were on scene, who knew about the shooting but since the smuggler got away the assumed it was a dry shoot. They did not want to have to come in on their day off and fill out paperwork for 6-8 hours. BP agents are only required to make an oral statement to the supervisors.
They DID NOT beat Aldrete and that is never mentioned anywhere, even the transcripts of the trial. The only person to give a statement before the trial was Compean and his words were “I THINK Nacho hit him.”
Pat talks about the DOJ summary released by Sutton yet everything Sutton Claims have been proven false in the many interviews he has done since then and the many investigative reporters who have gone through every piece of paperwork they can get a hold of.
Remember Sutton also makes Claims that the “october Load” was still under investigation and all that.
Well, guess what, the dope runner now sits in federal prison for FOUR SMUGGLING operations that took place between the time he was shot at by the agents and the time the trial began, yet the US Attorney office fights to keep this from the jury and the judge rules with them saying these cases are irrelevent. Well excuse me, but that goes to credibility of a witness and ITS VERY IRRELEVENT.
The Four operations of smuggling took place in June, September, and Twice in October 2005 before trial which was to have started the morning of the second october load. DEA, El Paso Sheriff and Border patrol all had him and others at a stash house in Clint, Texas, and the US Attorney Office in El Paso said “don’t arrest anyone at that house” The DEA agent and the stash house owner were both set to testify at the trial for the defense yet the US Attorney argued they should not be allowed to testify and the judge said ok. So the jury never knew about the other smuggling operations even though everyone else did.
Another fact on how this investigation got started. the mom of the dope runner called her friend whos son-in-law is a border agent in Arizona and also childhood friends with the doperunner. They talked three times and it was on this third time with no one in the same room as the doper that he ADMITTED to this BP agent that he was indeed smuggling drugs into the US. However, this agent told NO ONE about this. And instead told the doper not to do anything unless immunity was granted and helped his friend get an attorney in the US to sue the US government for FIVE MILLION DOLLARS of your tax money. This same agent was tipped off to smuggling operations in the el paso area, would call BP in el paso and tell them when and where a smugging operation would take place. This at a time when two cartels were fighting for the smuggling routes. he snitched on the cartel that his friend did not work for. yet none of this was ever investigated.
All the charges the US attorny brought in this case were subject to in house disipline action by the border patrol ranging from an oral reprimand to a five day suspension without pay.
the US Attorney claims the doper was unarmed because that is what the drug runner said. He was never searched. however, his own family has said hes been smuggl,ing drugs since he was 14 and NEVER carried a load without a gun.
If you want a real cover up, an investigation needs to be done into the background of the agent in Arizona who has since been given whistle blower protection, was a teacher at the BP academy in artesia but now works in El Paso.
another investigation needs to be done into the US Attorney office who in the western district of Texas has thrown SIX law enforcement in prison, One for adopting his neices from Mexico. Funny thing is, neither mexico, the US, nor the state of texas have come forward and said the adoption was not legit. Sutton’s office accused this agent of lying about the childrens age and accused him of running a midget prostitution ring. The girls at the time were all under age 14. They were questioned without their parents present or an attorney and its reported that the people doing the interrigating in the el paso US Attorney office also called them “little whores”