Bush commutes former Border Patrol agents’ prison terms

The Justice Department announced that Bush has granted clemency to former Texas-based [Border Patrol] agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio “Nacho” Ramos. As is usually the case in such executive grants, the announcement included no explanation, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Compean and Ramos were convicted of shooting admitted drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks as he fled a van full of marijuana. They argued at trial that they thought Davila was armed and that they shot in self-defense, but the prosecutor said no evidence linked the van to Davila and that the agents didn’t report the shooting and tampered with evidence by picking up several spent shell casings.

They were fired after their convictions, and all charges but obstruction of justice were upheld on appeal.

Bush could have pardoned Compean and Ramos, which essentially would have wiped away their underlying convictions. Instead, he chose to commute their prison terms, which keeps their underlying convictions intact.

Even so, one former Justice Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of criticizing the president, decried the commutations today. “These men were totally unrepentant, there was obstruction of justice, they shot a man in the back. I am speechless. These are terrible clemency cases,” he said.

The commutations come on Bush’s last full day in office. 

via Bush commutes former Border Patrol agents’ prison terms – Los Angeles Times.

So let’s see if I’ve got this straight:  If you’re a cop, and you shoot an unarmed fleeing man in the back, and then you don’t report it and try to cover up the crime, you get a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card because the man did run away from a van full of marijuana.  Besides, the man was a Mexican crossing the border, so he deserved to die anyway, right?

But if you’re a citizen and police burst into your house at night, unannounced, in a bad neighborhood, serving a warrant on the wrong address, and you fire in self-defense, killing an armed but unidentified police officer who was coming for you and your infant daughter, it’s life without the possibility of parole for you because the cops were looking for the house next door that was full of marijuana.  Need I mention the citizen is black?

The last day of George W. Bush has proven once again his compassion… for those in power who break the laws that suit his political agenda.  Out a CIA agent in time of war or shoot an unarmed drug smuggler in the back and you get a commutation of sentence.  Spy on Americans without warrants and go to war on faulty intelligence and you get a Medal of Freedom.  Let an entire city drown and you’ve done a “heckuva” job.  By these measures of success, I’m expecting Bush to nominate John Walters for sainthood any minute now.