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Monday, December 3, 2007
Judge: Case against border agents “got out of hand”
Federal prosecutors may have overreacted in their case against two former Border Patrol agents serving lengthy prison terms for shooting a Mexican drug dealer and trying to cover it up, an appeals court judge said Monday, according to the Associated Press.
Judge E. Grady Jolly, one of three judges from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hearing the case of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, questioned whether the two agents would have been charged if they had reported the shooting, the story said.
“For some reason, this one got out of hand, it seems to me,” Jolly said of the agents’ prosecution.
Compean’s lawyer, Bob Baskett, said he was encouraged by the judges comments.
The case has become a cause celebre among conservatives and groups that advocate tougher border controls. Supporters say that the agents were wrongly convicted for protecting the United States against a criminal intruder.
Members of Congress have asked President Bush to pardon the agents or commute their sentences.
U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas has staunchly defended the prosecution.
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