Manuel Osorio-Arellanes plead guilty to first degree murder charges in killing US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. As the Associated Press reports (see "Brian Terry death: Mexican man Manuel Osorio-Arellanes pleads guilty in killing of US agent"): 

A Mexican man pleaded guilty Tuesday in the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent during a 2010 firefight near the Arizona-Mexico border. The first-degree murder plea on Tuesday by Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, of El Fuerte in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, marks the first conviction in the December 2010 death of Agent Brian Terry. Osorio-Arellanes faces up to life in prison.

Mr. Osorio-Arellanes killed Agent Terry with a weapon from the botched "Fast and Furious" escapade that landed US Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke, Attorney General Eric Holder, and ATF acting director Kenneth Melson in hot water. 

The putative plan of "Fast and Furious" was to sell guns and rifles to straw buyers, who would then sell the weapons to Mexican gangs and drug dealers. The theory was to trace the sales to the drug cartels themselves. It seems, however, the actual details of the plan were carelessly thought out, if at all.

The open question is thus if "Fast and Furious" had never been attempted, or at least been carried out with a bit more consideration, would Agent Terry still be alive? If so, what should be done about it? Should government officials or agencies be sued? Or even more dramatically, should government officials, if culpable, be prosecuted? 

The important point here is not that prosecutions, if appropriate, will bring Agent Terry back to life. But it could be just the "ounce of prevention" necessary to make sure something like this disaster does not happen again.