Cannon Calls on Judge Mukasey to Address the Injustice Done to Border Agents Ramos and Compean
WASHINGTON DC – Congressman Chris Cannon (R-UT) today joined Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) in requesting Attorney General Nominee, Judge Michael Mukasey, to thoroughly review the case of Border Patrol Agents Ramos & Compean. Upon signing the letter, Congressman Cannon said:
“These two brave law enforcement officers are in prison today because of an overzealous prosecutor. To add charges ONLY after these agents refused a plea bargain is an affront to justice. Too many crocodile tears have been shed over fired prosecutors while these heroes languish in solitary confinement. While the President should pardon these agents immediately, I urge Judge Mukasey, upon confirmation, to immediately review this matter.”
Cannon is an original co-sponsor of HR 563, the Congressional Pardon for Agents Ramos and Compean Act.
Ramos and Compean will spend more than a decade in jail because they were charged with violating a federal gun law that mandates such a harsh prison term regardless of the fact their job requires them to carry a firearm. The original indictment against the agents did not even include the federal gun charge; it was added to the indictment after the agents refused plea bargains under which they would have served about two years in jail. Prosecutors then charged the agents with discharging a firearm during the commission of a violent crime and argued that the charge carried a mandatory-minimum ten-year jail sentence. Without the gun charge, the agents’ sentences for assault and the violation of Mexican Drug Lord Davila’s civil rights would have been far shorter.
