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righthanded or lefthanded and why does the question matter?
In numerous articles, including one from my favorite magazine, Chronicles: A Magazine of
American Culture http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/, writers report that the drug smuggler
AldreteDavila was lefthanded.
Scouting through the trial transcripts online, however, I saw some disagreement on this
point.
AldreteDavila testified on directexamination that he was righthanded. AldreteDavila
Direct Examination by Attorney for the government’s prosecution, Assistant United States
Attorney Jose Luis Gonzalez, at page 107, lines 5 & 6, Volume VII of XVIII, February 22,
2006. (Question: “…[A]re you righthanded or lefthanded? Answer: “I am righthanded.”)
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txw/press_releases/CompeanRamos/Volume%207.pdf.
Granted, the statement was in the present tense, so it is possible that AldreteDavis, a
grown man, went from lefthand dominant to righthand dominant in the year that elapsed
from the incident to the trial, but that sounds impossibly unlikely.
On crossexamination, defense counsel did not directly challenge AldreteDavila on his
right or lefthandedness. The most they did to impeach his credibility was a sort of
demonstration. Ramos’ defense counsel Mary Stillinger had AldreteDavis indicate, with a
pointer, his location and course of travel on several maps. Although the transcript
records that such indicating took place [e.g. (indicating)], it does not record which hand
AldreteDavis used. But there was this exchange:
12 Q. Okay. Mr. Aldrete, I noticed when you're using the pointer
13 you're holding your right hand up with your left. Do you have
14 a problem with your right hand?
15 A. I don't have I don't have a my hand doesn't hold
16 steady.
17 Q. Okay. Because I thought I saw you earlier holding it with
18 your left hand.
19 A. No. It's my right.
AldreteDavila CrossExamination by Attorney for defendant Ramos, Mary Stillinger, at page
172, lines 1219, Volume of XVIII, February 22, 2006.
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txw/press_releases/CompeanRamos/Volume%207.pdf.
But that was it for defense counsel challenging AldreteDavila on the issue of whether he
was lefthanded or righthanded.
Recall Agent Ramos was already locked into his story that AldreteDavis turned around to
his left and seemingly pointed something shiny, possibly a gun, in the direction of Ramos
and his partner, Agent Compean. Ramos eventually stuck with this version of events in his
testimony when called as a defense witness.
Returning to the prosecution's case, the prosecution also bolstered AldreteDavila’s
direct testimony with the direct testimony of Special Agent, U.S. Dept. of Homeland
Security, Office of Inspector General, Christopher Sanchez. Sanchez testified that, in
the course of his investigation of the events, he observed AldreteDavila writing and
drawing maps and otherwise displaying righthand dominance. Christopher Sanchez Direct
Examination by Attorney for the government’s prosecution, Assistant United States Attorney
Debra Kanof, 3435, lines 1725 and 18, respectively, Volume X11 of XVIII, March 1, 2006.
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txw/press_releases/CompeanRamos/Volume%2012.pdf.
Now, Mr. Sanchez was and is a family relation of AldreteDavila, but the fact remains he
offered unchallenged testimony on this righthanded versus lefthanded issue.
Finally, the prosecution made much of the discrepancy in closing, using the evidence in
support of AldreteDavila’s righthandedness to impeach the credibility of both Ramos the
admitted shooter, and Compean, his partner –and this not merely on the question of whether
AldreteDavila turned and aimed something with his lefthand while running away, but also
regarding the interaction between Compean and AldreteDavila just prior to the shooting.
In contrast, defense counsel in their closing arguments merely argued that while Aldrete
Davila may have been righthanded, he still might have turned back on his left side and
aimed a gun or what reasonably may have appeared to be a gun, with his left hand.
Although true enough as a logical point, that argument nevertheless, in my reading at
least, gave the appearance that defense counsel were conceding that AldreteDavila was
righthanded.
In sum then, defense counsel, in my opinion, did not sufficiently address the impeachment
of Ramos’ credibility that arose from the prosecution’s evidence that AldreteDavis was
righthanded.
The entrywound seemed a nonissue to me. As inconsistent as it would seem for me to say
after all that I have just written, I still wonder, “So what if he did turn around to his
left?” The issue was whether AldreteDavila turned with a gun or what might have been
reasonably considered a gun. If he’s righthanded, the defense has a problem. If the
prosecution offers evidence that he’s righthanded, the defense has an even bigger
problem. And if the defense doesn’t even directly challenge the prosecution’s evidence,
well, then, it sounds like they don’t believe their own clients, i.e. that the cops are
lying about the turnaround to the left.
Therefore, given the testimony by AldreteDavila and Christopher Sanchez, and the fact
that it went virtually unchallenged, one could find Border Patrol Agent Ramos' testimony
incredible on the issue of whether the AldreteDavila turned to his left and aimed with
his left hand what reasonably appeared to be a gun. Finding the defendant Ramos
incredible on that point, one could conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that agent Ramos,
at least, shot at AldreteDavila outside the law.
Meanwhile, reading the transcripts, especially the crossexamination of the prosecutors
(especially the female prosecutor by the way), one may infer that the rules of engagement
for Border Patrol agents leave them feeling pretty emasculated. It is as if they are
supposed to chase but not catch. It's like they are to corral the illegals back to Mexico
and pick them up only if they stop running or turn and attack. It sounds like they are
hired to be nannies, to corral illegals here and there as if they were kids and only
touch them if they throw a tantrum –but don’t punish them for the tantrum, just hold them
down. These rules of engagement would frustrate any male from 8 to 80 years of age.
Frustrating human nature to that extent you can chase, but you can't catch unless they
let you catch them, of course might result in lashing out. The government's allegation,
the whole case, seems to me to be that Ramos took a free shot, a cheap shot; that he shot
at and hit AldreteDavila late, at some point after shooting might have been justified or
defensible.
Perhaps these, our guys, protecting our border from drug smugglers, merely had a quite
normal, manly, reaction to frustrating rules of engagement and overall corruption. For
instance, why didn't AldreteDavila stop his car earlier? I'd venture to guess he did not
stop because, as everyone seems to know, border enforcement is, and hence border patrol
agents are, a bit of a joke. And why is that? Maybe because the top wants it that way.
Thus how can one not expect a Border Patrol agent to react irrationally, in a base manner
on occasion, given such a system?