STAGE SET FOR TULIA RELEASES

Lawyers, legislators, political activists and the curious will make their
way to the Panhandle community of Tulia on Monday. They'll come from the
East Coast, West Texas and the state capital to witness an event that,
though largely symbolic, already is creating waves of emotion.

Shortly after 1 p.m., 13 drug convicts in handcuffs and leg shackles - 12
blacks and one Hispanic - will be led from the Swisher County Jail to the
same small courtroom where three years ago they were sentenced to lengthy
prison terms.

State District Judge Ron Chapman of Dallas, who ruled two months ago that
38 defendants had been improperly convicted because of shaky testimony of a
white undercover officer, will take his place behind the bench.

The judge will say a few words and begin the process that will set 12 of
them free on bond while their cases are on appeal. One will be retained
because of another charge.

Then, with the Panhandle courthouse as a backdrop and national media in
place, the freed defendants, their attorneys, political activists and Texas
politicians will talk about a flawed criminal justice system that they will
say has snared other innocent people across the country.

"Remember Tulia," attorneys say, is destined to be a rallying cry to warn
about minorities being unfairly targeted, convicted and sentenced - and a
judicial system in need of repair.

"There are people all over the country who can benefit from some of the
things that have happened in Tulia, and that will give them hope when they
are in a hopeless situation," said Mitchell Zamoff, a Washington, D.C.,
attorney representing one of the Tulia defendants.

The defendants are being courted by national radio and television talk
shows to discuss their ordeal.

"There's talk about a TV documentary. There's talk about Hollywood films
and an HBO movie," said an attorney working on the case who asked not to be
identified. "There are so many people calling us all the time, but until
this thing is resolved it seems just like exploitation to begin making deals."

A couple of books also are in the works, and a music CD titled The Tulia
Texas Review will be released this week with proceeds to benefit the defense.

Jeff Frazier, an Austin attorney who wrote the songs, said the title cut,
Tulia, Texas, is a blues tale of the struggles of many of the town's black
residents.

One verse goes:

"We're so black, we're blue in Tulia, Texas.

"It just can't be true in Tulia, Texas.

"That our guilt was written in our faces,

"They've done gone and wiped out all the traces, of our family.

"And now it's cotton-picking time in Tulia, Texas."

The drug stings and the media attention have divided Tulia, a predominantly
white farming town of 5,000 between Lubbock and Amarillo. Many of the white
residents support Sheriff Larry Stewart and his law enforcement efforts.

The 600-person black community is split over the issue, said Randy Credico,
director of the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice, a civil
rights group based in New York City.

"It's not a united political entity. There are not these hundreds of people
attending daily NAACP meetings," said Mr. Credico, who has led rallies and
organizational efforts for black Tulia residents in the last three years.
"It is an uneducated community. They're out of work and fractured. They
need to be unified by something other than going to church on Sunday."

Defense attorneys want the records of each of the defendants cleared, but
that could take as long as two years, if at all.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the Texas Board of Pardons and
Paroles must review the cases of the 13 defendants still in custody and 25
others who had been ensnared by the drug operation.

All pleaded guilty or were convicted based on the testimony of freelance
undercover officer Tom Coleman, who never corroborated his alleged drug
buys during his 18-month investigation in 1998 and 1999. Testimony has
shown he had personal and professional issues that affected his police work
and frequently used racial slurs.

For now, defense attorneys are overjoyed that politicians across the
spectrum joined in a legal battle that, they said, was viewed at one time
as just another liberal cause in the defense of black drug defendants.

"Before the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and other groups got
involved, we were so small and no one believed us that there was a
miscarriage of justice in Tulia," said Jeff Blackburn, an Amarillo attorney
who represents several of the defendants.

"Now, this case has been a lightning rod not only for liberal groups but
for lawyers and legislators who care whether the criminal justice system in
Texas delivers fairness to people," he said.

After the first defendant, 59-year-old Joe Moore, was convicted and
sentenced to 90 years in prison in December 1999, numerous defendants began
taking plea bargains. Thirty defendants eventually pleaded guilty,
attorneys said, intimidated by the convictions and lengthy prison sentences
that previous defendants had received.

As the tale gained national media attention, other attorneys began lending
their expertise to the battle and petitioned the Court of Criminal Appeals
for a review hearing.

That hearing came in March, when Judge Chapman heard a week's worth of
testimony from law enforcement officials and ruled that Mr. Coleman, the
son of a Texas Ranger and former winner of the Outstanding Lawman of the
Year award, was not a credible witness because of many inconsistencies. The
judge sent a recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: the
cases of all 38 people who were convicted or pleaded guilty as part of Mr.
Coleman's investigation should be overturned and new trials granted.

Then, state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, spearheaded legislation to free
the 13 defendants who remained in prison while state officials reviewed
their cases. Gov. Rick Perry signed the bill this month.

"I can't worry whether people say I jumped on the bandwagon," Mr. Whitmire
said. "The bottom line is that a number of us legislators in the last
session had made reference to it, but we had to wait to have an evidentiary
hearing and not rely on speculations, street talk or family members calling me.

"I couldn't have done it six months before, not even six weeks before,"
said Mr. Whitmire, who will fly into the Tulia area with his staff and
other legislators on Monday. "I was concerned about the governor. It's a
real challenge to get elected officials to support something that will take
people out of prison and put them back on the streets."

State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who also supported the legislation,
also will be in Tulia on Monday.

"I'm happy with what may happen for these people on Monday, but I think we
need to focus on the broader picture, and it's that the criminal justice
system in Texas is, in a lot of ways, broken," he said.

Although the racially charged case in Tulia has drawn national attention,
it is not the only proceeding in the state where mass convictions are being
closely scrutinized. Last year, Dallas County prosecutors dismissed more
than 80 tainted Dallas police narcotics cases after lab tests showed that
some of them contained ground gypsum or minute traces of drugs. The cases
involved mostly Hispanics, specifically undocumented immigrants, and were
the product of two officers and their paid informants.

"Tulia is not the only case like this out there," said Vanita Gupta,
general counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in New York
City, who represents several Tulia defendants. "Monday will be a big day as
they will walk out, but it's not the end of the story. The collateral
consequences of having felony convictions is devastating and a big barrier
to entering society, and that's what we'll continue to work hard to clear."

In the last few days, the 13 drug defendants were ordered to Swisher County
for the bond hearing. They will meet with their attorneys on Monday morning
and will be told what to expect - legally as well as from those looking for
a piece of their story, be it Hollywood producers or book publishers.

"This is a story that resonates with people around the country," said Mr.
Credico, the civil rights project director from New York.

"Things aren't well in America. Our civil liberties are being trampled on,
but even with this being a very dark point in the country's history, there
is this little beacon of light flashing."