SENTENCES OF RAMOS, COMPEAN COMMUTED

Order Issued During Bush's Last Day In Office

EL PASO - The prison sentences for the two former U.S. Border Patrol
agents who were convicted of shooting a Mexican drug dealer will end March
20, according to a commutation order signed Monday by President Bush.

The decision to end the sentences of former Border Patrol agents Ignacio
Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean brought tears of relief to their family and
friends while at the same restarting the national debate on whether the
agents should have been charged at all, much less with a crime that
carried a mandatory 10-year sentence.

"We had indications that the commutation was being considered," said Joe
Loya, who is Ramos' father-in-law. "But until it happens, you don't know.
Everything everyone did to help has paid off. It was not right that they
were in prison, but we are so happy now."

Ramos and Compean, who have served about two years of their sentences, are
expected to be released from prison on or after March 20. Ramos is in a
federal prison in Phoenix and Compean is in Ohio. They have been in
solitary confinement for two years, which means they eat alone and must
remain in their cells 23 hours a day.

Compean was sentenced to 12 years and Ramos to 11 years in prison. Both
agents were found guilty of civil-rights violations and discharging a
firearm during the act of a crime, an offense that includes a mandatory
10-year sentence.

"On behalf of Ignacio, his family and all of our law enforcement officers,
I am grateful that the president has shown that he is a compassionate
man," defense lawyer David Botsford said. "It was the right thing to do.
The conditions the men were living in were almost inhumane and to have
them live like that for 10 years would have been cruel and unusual."

The two agents were convicted of shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, an
admitted drug smuggler from JuA!rez, in the buttocks as he fled across the
Rio Grande in 2005. Aldrete, according to court testimony, was running
away from an abandoned van loaded with marijuana.

The border agents argued during their trials that they believed the
smuggler was armed and that they shot him in self-defense.

The U.S. Attorney's office, which prosecuted the agents, argued that the
two agents didn't report the shooting and tampered with evidence by
picking up several spent shell casings.

All their convictions, except obstruction of justice, were upheld on appeal.

Aldrete, who testified against the agents, was arrested several months
later on drug smuggling charges. He was convicted in 2008 and sentenced to
nine years in prison, where he remains.

Since the two agents went into prison, several members of Congress along
with their families and other organizations such as the Minutemen have
been asking that the agents be pardoned or that their sentences be
commuted. The president has the power to pardon criminals or to commute
their sentence, which ends their prison term ahead of time. Bush had until
Tuesday morning to issue any pardons or commutations.

Among the Congress members who had been pushing for a commutation order
was U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas. Reyes wrote to President Bush last
July, asking him to commute the sentences of the former agents. He wrote
to the president again in October, after the Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals denied the former agents' request for a rehearing.

Last week, Reyes signed a letter along with several Congress members
asking President Bush to issue a commutation.

"The president made the right decision in commuting the sentences of
Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean," Reyes said. "As a former Border Patrol
sector chief, I do not condone the actions of these two men, but I believe
the mandatory 10-year sentencing guidelines used in this case were
excessive."

U.S. Texas senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, both
Republicans, also had written to the president.

Hutchison said, "I commend President Bush for listening to so many of us,
both in Congress and across the nation, who have asked that he look at the
case of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. Their time served more than makes
up for any mistakes they made."

Cornyn said, "These individuals have already paid the consequences of
their actions and beyond. Having been convicted of charges now
second-guessed by even the presiding prosecutor, this case cried out for a
commutation and the President has now acted to right the wrongs of their
excessive and unjust sentences."

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, who oversees the El Paso U.S. attorney's
office and was the presiding prosecutor, said in a prepared statement that
he respected Bush's decision to commute the sentences.

"Like the trial judge and the court that reviewed the cases on appeal,
President Bush found that Compean and Ramos were justly convicted of
serious crimes and that their status as convicted felons should remain in
place," Sutton said. He added, "I have the highest respect for the
president's decision to allow their convictions to stand, but to reduce
the time they must spend in prison."

Arizona resident Valerie Roller, who is a member of the national
motorcycle group, Riders USA, began crying when she heard the news.

"We are so grateful that President Bush decided to do this," said Roller,
who wrote hundreds of letters to the White House on behalf of Ramos and
Compean.