Report: Bush Refuses to Pardon Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos

The Bush administration is in its last days.  One of the upshots is that requests for Presidential pardons are on the rise.  Newsweek reports that

"Among rejected applicants for commutation were Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos, two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer have become a lightning rod in the illegal immigration debate. Their requests were recently "closed without action" because they haven't yet served out their prison terms, Justice spokesman Ian McCaleb told NEWSWEEK. However, Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, Texas Sen. John Cornyn and California Sen. Diane Feinstein have written letters urging Bush to commute their sentences."

In July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the bulk of the convictions of the two Border Patrol officers, who are serving sentences of 11 and 12 years in prison respectively for shooting a fleeing drug smuggler and covering it up.

KJ