Injustice Smells Like Johnny Sutton and the Bush Administration

President Bush should immediately commute the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted in the shooting of a drug-smuggling suspect, says the chairman of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee.

Rep. Bill Delahunt, Massachusetts Democrat who heads the subcommittee on international organizations, human rights and oversight, said in a resolution yesterday the 11- and 12-year sentences for Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, respectively, were "profoundly disproportionate" based on federal sentencing guidelines.

Ramos, 37, and Compean, 28, were sentenced in October 2006 for shooting Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks in February 2005 when he was running from a van with 743 pounds of marijuana near Fabens, Texas.

Mr. Delahunt called the sentences "a miscarriage of justice," saying serious questions have been raised about the manner in which U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton in El Paso prosecuted the case.
He said the agents' supervisor, Border Patrol Sector Chief Luis Barker, described the sentences during Senate testimony as "disproportionate," and that Mr. Sutton has said, "Some say it's just too much time, and I have some sympathy for that."

"President Bush can correct a gross miscarriage of justice with the stroke of a pen," he said. "And this resolution will put Congress on record demanding that he do just that."

Mr. Delahunt said that between February 2005 and June 2007, there have been 1,982 incidents in which Border Patrol agents have been assaulted. He said the numbers would "support the premise that Border Patrol agents operate in a climate of tension, danger and even fear for the safety of themselves and others."

Ramos and Compean testified they thought Aldrete-Davila had a weapon.