WASHINGTON — In one of his final acts in office, President Bush on Monday commuted the controversial prison terms of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting an unarmed Mexican drug smuggler who fled across the Rio Grande, away from a van loaded with 743 pounds of marijuana.
The clemencies were granted without input from the Justice Department, one of several controversial cases in which the White House did not go through the standard review, according to current and former Justice Department officials.
Bush's grants of clemency for Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos were prompted by sustained pressure from Republican lawmakers -- along with some Democrats -- in California, Texas and other border states.
The former agents' case had been a cause celebre among advocates of a more hard-line approach to securing the border against illegal immigration. Lawmakers and conservative groups had aggressively pushed for pardons for the two men.
Compean and Ramos were convicted of shooting admitted drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks as he fled a van loaded with marijuana in 2005. They testified at their trial that they thought Aldrete Davila was armed and that they had shot him in self-defense. But the prosecution said there was no evidence linking Davila to the van, that the agents had not reported the shooting and that they tossed their shotgun casings into the Rio Grande to hide the evidence.
The agents were found guilty of assault with a dangerous weapon, violating Aldrete Davila's civil rights and defacing a crime scene.
Much of the evidence against the agents came from Aldrete Davila, who was granted immunity. He has suffered lasting effects from his injury.
The Justice Department announced the commutations in a brief statement that included no explanation, as is traditional in such executive orders. The White House had no comment.
Bush could have pardoned Compean and Ramos, which essentially would have wiped away their convictions. By commuting their prison terms, he left their convictions intact.
Bush did not grant clemency to some other high-profile petitioners -- including convicted junk-bond financier Michael Milken; former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, who was convicted of fraud and racketeering in 2006; John Walker Lindh, the Marin County teenager who went to Afghanistan and fought with the Taliban; and former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Rancho Santa Fe), who in 2005 pleaded guilty to bribery and tax evasion, among other violations.
