(CNSNews.com) - A federal judge said Monday that prosecutors overreacted in pursuing a case against two ex-Border Patrol agents who shot a suspected Mexican drug smuggler in the buttocks and tried to cover it up.

The now famous case of former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, convicted and sentenced to 11 and 12 years respectively, was argued in front of a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

The two men have been in prison for almost a year, and a decision in the court case is not expected until early next year, said David Botsford, an attorney for Ramos.

One of the three judges on the panel, Judge E. Grady Jolly, said, "It does seem to me that the government overreacted here," according to an Associated Press report.

Ramos and Compean were convicted on charges that included assault, obstruction of justice, civil rights violations, and discharge of a deadly weapon in the commission of a crime.

It is the weapons charge that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. This summer, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, during a hearing investigating the case, criticized U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas for bringing the weapons charge.

Sutton defended the government's case in a statement Monday regarding the appeals court hearing.

"Some in the media and on the Internet have tried to portray agents Compean and Ramos as heroes but that narrative is false," said Sutton.

"The actions of Compean and Ramos in shooting an unarmed, fleeing suspect, destroying evidence, and engaging in a cover-up, are serious crimes. They were prosecuted to uphold the rule of law. A jury rejected their factual claims of innocence after a two-week trial," he added.

Much of the prosecution's case was built on the fact that Compean had picked up his shell casings after the incident and that the men did not report the shooting to their supervisors. The defense denied an attempted cover-up during the trial.

Judge Jolly said if the agents had simply reported the shooting, "this prosecution never would have occurred, in all likelihood. ... For some reason, this one got out of hand, it seems to me."

For most of the past year, a growing chorus of mostly Republicans and some Democrats in Congress called for President Bush to either pardon or commute the sentences of Ramos and Compean.

The defense hopes to overturn the conviction and get a new trial.

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