http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=32940 Bill Seeks to Shield Law Enforcement from Border Agents' Fate Thursday, July 24, 2008 By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer
(CNSNews.com) - A Republican congressman wants to prevent another law enforcement agent from suffering the same fate as ex-Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. Both men are serving decade-long prison sentences for shooting a fleeing illegal alien who will be sentenced next month on federal drug smuggling charges. Ramos and Compean shot Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks when he tried to smuggle 743 pounds of marijuana across the Texas border near El Paso in February 2005. The severity of the sentencing resulted from the charge of discharging a weapon during the commission of a felony, which carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison. Ramos and Compean were also convicted on charges of assault and covering up the crime, which carried a sentencing of two years or less. The law is typically referred to as the "924c law," for its statute number. Because of the Ramos and Compean case, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) recently introduced legislation <http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-6367> to exempt law enforcement officers from being prosecuted for the discharge of a weapon if the officer does so in the line of duty. "The genesis of this was the Ramos and Compean case - the law was misapplied," Brady told CNSNews.com. "It is supposed to apply to a criminal who chooses to use a weapon during a crime, not law enforcement agents who have to use their weapons to do their jobs." More than 100 members of Congress from both parties have asked President Bush to either pardon the ex-agents or commute their sentences. During congressional hearings last year in the House and Senate, members criticized U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas for lacking prosecutorial discretion when he brought the weapons charge against the agents. Last July, three members of Congress - Republican Reps. Ted Poe of Texas, Walter Jones of North Carolina and Virgil Goode of Virginia -- filed a "friend of the court" brief with the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard the Ramos and Compean appeal, saying the 924c law was misapplied in this case. (See <http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=23604> Previous Story) Should Brady's proposal become law, it would not be retroactive and would have no effect on the Ramos and Compean case. "I don't want another law enforcement officer doing their job to ever have to worry about a 10-year prison term," Brady said. Monica Ramos, the wife of Ignacio Ramos, said she brought the misapplication of the weapons discharge law up when she met with about 40 members of Congress and/or staff members shortly after her husband began serving his sentence in January 2007. "I said errors were made with 924c," Monica Ramos recalled in an interview with CNSNews.com. "This law was used and abused, and it could be used against other law enforcement officers." The bill will go first to the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), who conducted a subcommittee hearing investigating the case last year and wrote letters to Bush asking for a commutation of the sentence, is a member of the Judiciary panel, as are Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), both of whom have expressed sympathy for the agents. Delahunt's office could not be reached for comment. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), one of the biggest advocates in Congress of the agents, hopes to see the law passed because he said it is "quite obvious the original intent" of the weapons law requiring a minimum 10-year sentence "was to send a message to criminals, not law enforcement officers, to leave their guns at home." "Clearly, the Ramos and Compean case could impact every law enforcement officer's ability to use their weapons in the line of duty by exposing them to a potential prosecution resulting in a mandatory decade in prison," Rohrabacher told CNSNews.com. Aldrete-Davila is set to face sentencing on Aug. 6 for a drug smuggling offense separate from the one committed on the day he was shot. He pleaded guilty in April to two counts of possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance, one count of conspiracy to import a controlled substance, and one count of conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute. These offenses to which he pleaded guilty to occurred in October 2005. At that time the U.S. attorney's office had given him a humanitarian pass to enter and exit the United States unsupervised while he was under an immunity agreement to be the lead witness against the two agents for the February shooting. (See <http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=23771> Previous Story) Patty Compean, wife of jailed agent Jose Compean, said putting Aldrete-Davila away now doesn't help matters much. "We all knew Aldrete-Davila was guilty," she told CNSNews.com. "It doesn't matter now, other than getting a doper off the street." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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