Senate panel to review prosecution and imprisonment of Compean and Ramos this morning.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., will preside over the full Senate Judiciary Committee's "Hearing to Examine the Prosecution of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean," two former Border Patrol agents serving 11 and 12 years respectively in federal prison for shooting a suspected Mexican drug smuggler in the buttocks near El Paso in February 2005, then covering up the incident.

(You can watch the hearing live-streamed on the committee's Web site. Two outspoken congressional advocates for the imprisoned agents also have been added to the witness list -- California Republican Reps. Dana Rohrabacher and Duncan Hunter, who is also a Republican candidate for president).

The case has become a cause celebre among supporters of the agents who believe Ramos and Compean were unjustly prosecuted and punished for doing their duty and for what they believe was kid-glove treatment of the man they shot, Mexican national Jose Aldrete-Davila, who is suing the U.S. government for millions of dollars.

The hearing begins at 8 a.m. MDT and will feature testimony from Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar; U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, who prosecuted the agents; T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council (the agents' union); Luis Barker, deputy chief of the Office of the Border Patrol; and David L. Botsford, the Austin, Texas-based appellate attorney for Ramos.

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