THAT’S DEBATABLE:

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans recently upheld most of the convictions against two U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting an unarmed illegal immigrant. The decision angered some GOP House members, prompting them to call on President Bush to pardon Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean. Do you think they should be pardoned?

The decision by U.S. Atty. Johnny Sutton to give every benefit of the doubt to an illegal alien drug smuggler that he wasn’t armed over our Border Patrol officers is one of the worst miscarriages of justice I’ve ever seen. On the face of it, the decision to target the border agents was a horrible one that has resulted in the destruction of the lives of the border agents and their families.

The prosecutor’s claim that Ramos and Compean were convicted by a jury of their peers as justification for this travesty is disingenuous at best. The jury was never permitted to know that the star witness was a career criminal who continued to smuggle drugs while under immunity and that three jurors have since signed affidavits claiming they were misinformed by the jury foreman that a hung jury wouldn’t be accepted.

If the president can commute [the sentence of] his friend Scooter Libby, he should at least do the same for Ramos and Compean.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher

(R-Huntington Beach)

I believe the sentences should be commuted.

They were convicted under an enhancement statute that was intended to increase punishment in drug dealing and violent crime cases. The jury found them guilty, but the circumstances of the crime do not justify prison sentences of more than a decade.

Debbie Cook

Democratic candidate, 46th Congressional District