Rep.: Commute sentences for border agents

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- The chairman of a House subcommittee is urging President George Bush to commute the sentences of two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a suspect.

Rep. Bill Delahunt, chairman of the Foreign Affairs subcommittee on international organizations, human rights and oversight, said Thursday in a resolution that the White House should commute the prison sentences handed down to Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, Border Patrol agents found guilty of the October 2005 shooting of drug-smuggling suspect Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, The Washington Times reported Friday.

Delahunt said Ramos' 11-year sentence and Alonso's 12-year sentence were "profoundly disproportionate" when compared to federal sentencing guidelines.

The two agents were convicted of shooting Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks while he was running from a van with 743 pounds of marijuana.

"President Bush can correct a gross miscarriage of justice with the stroke of a pen," Delahunt said. "And this resolution will put Congress on record demanding that he do just that."