A good thing to, and too long in coming:
In his final acts of clemency, President George W. Bush on Monday commuted the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer ignited fierce debate about illegal immigration.
Bush’s decision to commute the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who tried to cover up the shooting, was welcomed by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress. They had long argued that the agents were merely doing their jobs, defending the American border against criminals. They also maintained that the more than 10-year prison sentences the pair was given were too harsh.
Rancor over their convictions, sentencing and firings has simmered ever since the shooting occurred in 2005.
Ramos and Compean became a rallying point among conservatives and on talk shows where their supporters called them heroes. Nearly the entire bipartisan congressional delegation from Texas and other lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle pleaded with Bush to grant them clemency.
Bush didn’t pardon the men for their crimes, but decided instead to commute their prison sentences because he believed they were excessive and that they had already suffered the loss of their jobs, freedom and reputations, a senior administration official said.
And that is just President Bush all over – always wary of overturning the verdict of a jury. This is wise for an executive – the opposite is what Bill Clinton did, which was to put pardons up at fire sale prices in his last month in office. But the central defense of American liberty is the jury – and even if we don’t like what a jury does, we should still carefully abide by it except in extraordinary circumstances. Liberals spend enough time eroding the power and influence of juries, we conservatives must never join them in that task.
But I am pleased with this commutation – the sentence was, in my view, excessive; there was, in my view, no actual crime involved here as the officers were defending our borders in the incident. If there was a cover up, then loss of employment should have been as far as it went. But all is well that ends well, and Ramos and Compean can now return to their families.
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