FORMER BORDER PATROL AGENTS SEEK LAST-MINUTE HELP FROM BUSH

Two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a Mexican drug
smuggler in Texas in 2005 are among the thousands of people seeking
last-minute leniency from President George W. Bush before he leaves
office Jan. 20.

The case of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean has drawn attention
as lawmakers and others have asked Bush to commute their prison sentences.

"I have no crystal ball, but I am guardedly optimistic that President
Bush will do the right thing and commute part or all of their 10-year
sentences before he leaves office," said David Botsford, an Austin
attorney representing Ramos.

Presidents have the power to issue pardons and commute sentences. On
Monday, Bush issued 19 pardons and commuted one sentence, which means
he has given out 190 pardons and nine commutations during his eight
years in office.

Texas plea

Supporters of Ramos and Compean maintain that the two were
overzealously prosecuted by the office of U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton
of San Antonio and that the sentences were overly harsh.

Appeals have upheld the convictions of Ramos and Compean for shooting
Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, who was trying to flee back to Mexico after
abandoning a van carrying 743 pounds of marijuana near Fabens not far
from El Paso, and trying to cover it up. Aldrete-Davila testified at
the agents' trial.

Ramos received an 11-year sentence; Compean received 12.

Botsford said he has asked that Ramos' sentence, of which he has
already served the minimum one year and one day, be commuted.

"Getting him out of prison is the most important thing to him and his
family," Botsford said. "He was brutally assaulted within the first
week he was incarcerated in a federal correction institution and has
been in protective custody ever since.

"The conditions are terrible for him," he said. "He is denied the
normal privileges such as phone calls and visitation rights, and no
one should have to serve the better part of 10 years in solitary confinement."

Dallas attorney Bob Baskett, who represents Compean, could not be
reached for comment.

Calls for clemency

Several members of Congress, including Republican Sen. John Cornyn of
Texas, who said the agents' imprisonment was a "miscarriage of
justice," have asked Bush to pardon the agents or commute their sentences.

Now that the clock is ticking before Bush leaves office, others are
joining in the call. Among them:

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., sent Bush a letter this month telling him
that the justice system failed Compean and Ramos and asking him to
commute their sentences and give them pardons.

Rep. Dana Rochbacher, R-Calif., wrote in HumanEvents.com that "the
American people cannot seem to reconcile how two law enforcement
officers whose job was to protect our borders from illegal aliens,
drug smugglers, human traffickers, and terrorists could end up
sitting in solitary confinement for shooting and wounding an illegal
alien in the process of smuggling over a million dollars worth of
drugs across our Southern border in Texas."

WorldNetDaily started an online petition, signed by more than 14,000
people, asking for the men's freedom as well. "These are the pardons
or sentence commutations the American people want to see more than
any other," said Joseph Farah, the WND editor who started the
petition. "We don't want to see any more drug dealers freed. We don't
want to see any other millionaires get pardons. We don't want to see
any other well-connected crooks have their sentences overturned."

The Minuteman political action committee has an online petition
asking Bush to pardon the men. The group says the men were prosecuted
to appease the Mexican government. And they say it was a "critical
failure of the U.S. justice system."

"Fellow border security groups have joined us in rallying on this one
poignant issue, which serves as the emblem of the Bush
Administration's failed immigration policy, the scandalous
prosecution and imprisonment of [Ramos and Compean]," according to an
e-mail from the group. "Now it's our turn to demand a full
presidential pardon of Ramos and Compean."