TEXAS FREES 12 JAILED ON DODGY EVIDENCE

Former 'lawman of the year' implicated

WASHINGTON -- The Texas justice system, which rarely admits to any failings,
yesterday released a dozen black convicts imprisoned on drug charges brought
by an investigator now accused of perjury.

The investigator, Tom Coleman, an itinerant lawman hired by the sheriff of
the flyspeck Texas panhandle town of Tulia, spent 18 months undercover
hunting down a massive drug conspiracy in the county seat of 4,000 people.
Based on his word alone, police swept through Tulia on July 23, 1999,
arresting 46 people, all but seven of them blacks, about 10 per cent of the
town's non-white population.

From the beginning it was apparent that Mr. Coleman, a pony-tailed white
man, had unorthodox crime-fighting techniques. No drugs, weapons, or large
sums of money were seized in the busts or presented in court. Mr. Coleman
had no video-or tape-recordings of the drug deals or fingerprint evidence.
Some of his notes were scrawled on his stomach or leg.

But the court did not allow his dodgy past -- including allegations he left
$7,000 U.S. in bad debts at a previous job -- to be noted during the trials.

In the trials and plea bargains that followed, 38 people were convicted and
some were sentenced to as much as 90 years in prison. Many pleaded guilty
because they feared those kinds of tough sentences handed out by local
judges and juries.

But cracks in the convictions soon began to appear. Two years ago, a female
defendant had her case thrown out when she produced evidence showing she was
out of the state at a time when Mr. Coleman said he bought drugs from her in
Tulia.

Mr. Coleman, who was named Texas lawman of the year for his work, now faces
three perjury charges for testimony in the drug busts. He could face up to
10 years in prison and a $10,000 U.S. fine on each charge.

As the fuss around the convictions started to grow, Ron Chapman, a judge
appointed to investigate the busts, accused Mr. Coleman of "blatant perjury"
and called him "the most devious, non-responsive witness this court has
witnessed in 25 years on the bench in Texas."

In his report, which recommended all the convictions be quashed, the judge
said Mr. Coleman's testimony "so undermines the court's confidence in the
validity of the convictions entered in those cases that it would be a
travesty of justice to permit the applicants' convictions to stand."

While the courts pondered what to do with increasingly problematic
convictions, the Texas legislature decided to act, passing a bill allowing
any Tulia convicts still in prison to be released, pending an appeals court
review.

The bill was signed into law two weeks ago by Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Yesterday, 12 of the convicts were released from prison on their own
recognizance.

Mr. Coleman's lawyer said his client stands behind his work and believes
releasing the inmates simply means more drug dealers will return to the
streets.

The embarrassment of having a high-profile drug sweep go up in smoke could
have wider consequences for the state's justice system.

Texas has the highest rate of executions in the United States, but
government officials continue to insist no innocent person has ever been put
to death.