TULIA RESIDENTS MAKE PUSH IN AUSTIN FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM MEASURES

AUSTIN - The Texas criminal justice system needs to be made fair and
accountable, several Tulia residents and advocates of reform said
Monday.

In a rally supporting criminal justice reform measures, Tulia members
of the Friends of Justice said no Texan should have to plead guilty
to a crime of which they are innocent to avoid a biased jury and an
unfair prison sentence.

Legislation is the key to preventing a travesty of justice, said
supporters of the Tulia Proposals, a set of bills introduced last
week in response to the controversy surrounding dozens of drug
arrests in Swisher County in 1999.

Those who support the Tulia Proposals believe the cases brought
against dozens of black Tulia residents were racially motivated and
unethical. Many young black residents of Tulia were arrested and
convicted of dealing powder cocaine during the summer of 1999, based
on findings of an 18-month undercover operation conducted by officer
Tom Coleman.

Law enforcement authorities in Swisher County are standing behind the
Coleman and the operation, saying people were arrested only because
they were dealing drugs.

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the matter.

At the urging of the Texas chapters of the American Civil Liberties
Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People, state Rep. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, has sponsored the Tulia
Proposals.

The measures call for corroboration for undercover agents' testimony,
limitations on judges' ability to exclude evidence and making public
certain information about a law enforcement officer's termination.

Joe Henderson, a 25-year-old father of four, said being arrested -
and subsequently pleading guilty to a drug crime - has made life hard
in his hometown.

Henderson, who worked as a dishwasher for a Tulia-area senior citizen
center prior to his arrest, said he can't find work now, and his
family had to sell many possessions - including a car - to post his
$25,000 bond.

Henderson denies having any experience with drugs and said he had a
clean record before pleading guilty to dealing drugs in exchange for
five years' probation.

''I was watching my friends get 100 years, 200 years (in prison),''
he said. ''I was scared for my life.''

Henderson came to Austin with other members of the Tulia-based groups
as well as other reform advocates to rally for change.

''I'd like to see justice done for this,'' he said.

Retired Tulia pastor, the Rev. Charles Kiker, said even if the Tulia
measures don't become law, those affected by the arrests have won
something from their ordeal.

''I think it's a victory even if they come down to defeat because
we've gotten some word out ... on the travesty of Tulia,'' he said.