Below is a copy of an email I received from the Gun Owners Of America
I would only hope the NRA will work as hard in behalf of these agents as the GOA.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) already has filed not one, but two friend
of the court briefs for Ignacio Ramos and Jose Antonio Compean. In
those briefs, GOF has pointed out to the Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals that the 10-year conviction of the two agents is for a crime
which doesn't exist.
The two agents were convicted of the "Discharge of a Firearm in
Relation to a Crime of Violence" -- something which is not an
offense, rather it is a sentencing enhancement after the government
has established illegal gun possession, use or carrying.
Of course, if the Feds had gone for that kind of charge, they would
have run into the problem that the agents were required to possess,
use and carry guns on them while on duty. That is why the US
Attorney, Johnny Sutton, went for, and succeeded, in making up an
offense that would not force him to explain away that the agents are
required to be armed.
One of the reasons the Border Patrol requires agents to be armed is
so they can use their guns against armed drug smugglers such as
Osvaldo Aldrete.
Even if the Supreme Court reverses this injustice done to Ramos and
Compean, they could expect to sit in jail for upwards of another two
years -- for a crime that was impossible for them to commit.
GOF was a friend of the court in a similar case before the Supreme
Court. Our position was upheld nine-to-nothing. It involved a drug
dealer who took a gun in payment for a bag of dope. The Feds gave
him many extra years because he supposedly had "used" a gun in a
crime. The Supreme Court agreed that such a view was ridiculous and
clearly not the intent of the law. The Fifth Circuit has simply
overlooked these fatal flaws in the government's case.
George Bush is thinking about his legacy. We have a chance to
convince him that his legacy is on the verge of staining his
reputation with the miscarriage of justice perpetrated by the federal
prosecutor, Johnny Sutton. Keep in mind that Sutton lied to the
trial court and to the appeals court about Aldrete's connections with
the drug trade. He also concealed from the jury that he was paying
Aldrete for his testimony against the agents.
Hopefully, President Bush does not want to be known as one who stood
by while innocent men -- and the wives and children -- suffered
because of a blatant injustice.
All gun owners should be alarmed at what the government has done to
these two agents. If they will do this to police officers, we cannot
assume they will treat the rest of the population any better. The
two GOF briefs are at:
http://www.gunowners.com/amicus10.pdfhttp://www.gunowners.com/amicus14.pdf
