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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Smuggler Shot by Border Patrol Agents to Serve Full Prison Term
Associated Press
EL PASO — An admitted drug smuggler who was shot in the buttocks by U.S. Border Patrol agents must serve his entire 9 1/2-year prison term for smuggling marijuna, a federal appeals court has ruled.
The two former agents — whose case became a cause among conservatives who complained the men were just doing their job — were convicted but had their sentences commuted by former President George W. Bush before he left office.
Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, who was shot by Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos in February 2005 during a failed marijuana smuggling attempt, pleaded guilty last year to charges he twice smuggled marijuana into Texas several months after he was shot.
On Monday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld the sentence.
Aldrete was given immunity for the February 2005 smuggling effort during which he was shot, and testified against the men. He told jurors that he was unarmed and fleeing when Ramos and Compean fired on him.
Aldrete was later indicted on charges that he smuggled marijuana twice more several months after he was shot.
During a sentencing hearing, Aldrete said told U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone that he was not a career smuggler.
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