Border Patrol Agents Get More than a Decade in Prison for Doing Their Jobs

This is beyond sad and ridiculous. I blogged about this a while back, where two U.S. Border Patrol agents were convicted of federal "crimes" against an admitted illegal alien drug smuggler upon the testimony of that smuggler. The guilty verdicts in this case are both a travesty and a disgrace...these two agents should be given award medals, not jail time. Instead, they go to prison for over a decade each, torn away from their families in what looked to be a trial rife with monkey business in a kangaroo court. It is a sad day indeed for this country and for these men. Read their story via the Washington Times, and pray for them...they are going to need it.

"Two U.S. Border Patrol agents who shot a drug smuggling suspect in the buttocks last year as he fled across the U.S.-Mexico border were sentenced to lengthy prison terms yesterday despite a plea by their attorney for a new trial after three jurors said they were coerced into voting guilty in the case.

U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, Texas, sentenced Jose Alonso Compean to 12 years in prison and Ignacio Ramos to 11 years and one day in their convictions on charges of causing serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and a civil rights violation.

A federal jury convicted Compean, 28, and Ramos, 37, in March after a two-week trial. The judge ordered them to report to prison Jan. 17. The Border Patrol fired both men after their convictions.

'Federal agents who protect our border deserve our respect, gratitude and trust. It is a difficult and dangerous job,' said U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, whose office prosecuted the case. 'But when law-enforcement officers use their badge as a shield for carrying out crimes and then engage in a cover-up, we cannot look the other way.

'Agents Compean and Ramos shot an unarmed, fleeing suspect in the back and lied about it,' he said.

Defense attorney Mary Stillinger argued unsuccessfully in a motion this week for the convictions to be set aside and a new trial ordered after three jurors -- Robert Gourley, Claudia Torres and Edine Woods -- signed sworn affidavits saying they were pressured to return guilty verdicts after being told by the jury foreman that the judge would not accept a hung jury.

'Essentially ... they conceded their votes, believing that they did not have the option to stick to their guns and prevent an unanimous verdict,' Ms. Stillinger said in the motion.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof, who prosecuted the case, told the court that the motion was not timely and lacked merit because 'it does not constitute newly discovered evidence.' She said the affidavits were obtained six months after the defense said it had done what it could to obtain juror affidavits and after the court had denied an extension of time for filing new motions.

The judge denied the motion yesterday before passing sentence.

Neither man spoke in the courtroom.

Federal prosecutors brought the charges after Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, a Mexican national, was given immunity and agreed to testify for the government following an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General.

Aldrete-Davila was shot after he illegally entered the United States near Fabens, Texas, and refused efforts by the agents to stop his vehicle. Court records show he jumped from his van and ran south to Rio Grande, where he was confronted by Compean, who was knocked to the ground. Aldrete-Davila managed to cross the border and escape in an awaiting van.

The immunity agreement protected Aldrete-Davila from being charged in the United States as a drug smuggler. Ramos and Compean found 743 pounds of marijuana in the van he abandoned near the Rio Grande." (All emphasis mine --Ed.)