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An Injustice Rectified and What It Ought to Symbolize
PoliGazette — In 2005, U.S. Border Patrol Agents Nacho Ramos and Jose Compeon stopped Oswaldo Aldrete-Davilla, a Mexican drug smuggler in the U.S. illegally, while the latter was in possession of nearly a half-ton of contraband.  A struggle ensued and Davilla was shot in the buttocks.  Ramos and Compeon, concerned about reporting the matter, foolishly attempted to clean up the scene, were caught, and were sentenced to more than a decade in prison, as David Broussard neatly summarized last year. On his last full day in office, President Bush has commuted the sentences of the agents, undoing a terrible injustice inflicted by the legal system on two of ...

Bush issues last pardon, won't pardon Scooter or Stevens or Cheney or anyone else?
AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth — Huh? President Bush on Monday commuted the sentences of two former border patrol agents who had been sentenced to more than a decade in prison for shooting and seriously wounding a Mexican drug dealer in Texas in 2005. With a day left in his presidency, Mr. Bush exercised his constitutional power to grant clemency — for the last time, according to a senior White House official — in a case that has touched off fierce debate in the Southwest. The two former agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, had attracted considerable support among ...

No More Pardons?
Political Animal — No More Pardons? From the NYT : "President Bush on Monday commuted the sentences of two former Border Patrol agents imprisoned for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler, but he was preparing to leave office without granting clemency to any better-known figures or government officials who could face liability over administration policies. (...) A senior White House official said that the commutations announced on Monday would be Mr. Bush's last acts of clemency before he leaves office. There had been speculation that Mr. Bush might act in a number of high-profile cases, including ...

No More Pardons?
Obsidian Wings — ... by hilzoy From the NYT: "President Bush on Monday commuted the sentences of two former Border Patrol agents ...

Blogtalk: Ramos and Compean Commutation
The Caucus — ... among anti-immigration activists, reaction on the right to President Bush’s commutation of the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean does not seem to have elevated the outgoing president in the eyes of those who want tighter border controls. The border patrol agents, “both of El Paso, were convicted on assault charges for shooting the unarmed, fleeing drug smuggler in the buttocks in 2005 and then trying to cover up the episode,” The Times’s Eric Lichtblau explained in his report today . They were both due to serve at least eight more years in prison, but Mr. Bush, ...

Compassionate Conservatism, My Ass
Hit & Run — In his final, telling acts of clemency, announced yesterday, George W. Bush commuted the prison sentences of two Border Patrol agents who were convicted in 2005 of shooting a fleeing, unarmed marijuana smuggler in the buttocks and then lying about the incident to cover up the crime. Jose A. Compean and Ignacio Ramos will now be released after serving less than three years of their sentences (12 and 11 years, respectively). "Border Patrol and law enforcement have no stronger supporter than me," Bush proclaimed a couple of years ago, when he first took an interest in the case. The New York Times notes that the sentences Compean ...