The Border Patrol and the fleeing felons

Washington Times:

Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have asked for congressional hearings and reviews by the White House and Justice Department into the conviction of two U.S. Border Patrol agents who shot and wounded a fleeing drug suspect.
The agents, convicted by a federal jury in El Paso in March, face 20 years in prison at a sentencing hearing next month.
"It appears the facts do not add up or justify the length of the sentences for these agents, let alone their conviction on multiple counts," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat. "Border Patrol agents have a difficult and often dangerous job in guarding our nation's borders.
"Undue prosecution of Border Patrol agents could have a chilling effect on their ability to carry out their duties," Mrs. Feinstein said in a letter Monday to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, requesting a full hearing into the matter.
She asked Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales last week to investigate the case. The U.S. attorney's office in El Paso, which reports to the Justice Department, prosecuted the two agents.
In a letter to President Bush, Rep. Walter B. Jones, North Carolina Republican, asked the White House to review the case, saying the prosecution was "outrageous." He said it did nothing but "tie the hands of the Border Patrol and prevent the agency from securing America against a flood of illegal immigrants, drugs, counterfeit goods and, quite possibly, terrorists."
"This demoralizing prosecution puts the rights of illegal smugglers ahead of our homeland security and undermines the critical mission of better enforcing immigration laws," Mr. Jones said. "These two agents should not be made scapegoats for our government's enforcement failures."
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What is missing from this story is the governments reason for prosecuting the case to begin with. It is just not clear why they felt the facts in this case justified finding the "victim" in Mexico and offering him immunity to come testify against the law enforcement officers who were trying to apprehend him. It would seem that justice would have been better severed by finding him and proecuting him. What the case does is give the bad guys an incentive to flee arrest and gives the law enforcement personel a reason not to persue the bad guys.