SHADY WITNESS, RACE BIAS TO CANCEL 38 CONVICTIONS

AUSTIN -- Texas prosecutors today agreed to throw out the convictions of 38
people, nearly all of them black, who faced drug charges based on the
uncorroborated testimony of a white former undercover police officer.

The state agreed with defense lawyers that the former officer, Thomas
Coleman, was an unreliable witness even though his testimony was the only
evidence used to convict the defendants, some of whom are serving sentences
of 90 years or more.

Asked if the convictions represented a travesty of justice, the state's
special prosecutor, Rod Hobson, hesitated a moment and then said, "Yes."

It was a dramatic turn of events in a racially charged case that erupted
into the national spotlight when more than a tenth of the black population
of Tulia, a poor farming town in the Texas Panhandle, was arrested on
cocaine charges in a 1999 sweep.

Of the 46 people originally arrested, 22 received prison sentences and 13
of them are still incarcerated, all on the say-so of Coleman, a police
officer with a checkered past who offered no fingerprints, audio or video
surveillance, corroborating witnesses or other evidence to support his
testimony. A number of experienced Texas lawyers said they had never before
seen convictions in a major drug case rest on the uncorroborated testimony
of one police officer.

Civil rights groups cried foul. Both the U.S. Justice Department and the
Texas Attorney General's office launched investigations into the Tulia
bust. But even as evidence emerged as to Coleman's unreliable testimony and
questionable character, the investigations seemed to go nowhere, and the
convicts languished in prison.

Judge Ron Chapman, a retired jurist from Dallas who was appointed to
preside over a hearing on the case, accepted the two sides' stipulation
today that Coleman "is simply not a credible witness under oath."
Nonetheless, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has the final decision on
the defendants, 27 of whom pleaded guilty after juries began handing out
lengthy sentences to the defendants who first went on trial.

In a hearing in Tulia two weeks ago, Coleman took the stand and
acknowledged there was no evidence beyond his testimony to support the
convictions. He also acknowledged using a racial epithet to refer to blacks
in conversations with his superiors.

When one of the defense lawyers asked him if he was sure all the defendants
behind bars deserved to be there, Coleman replied, "I'm pretty sure." He
also admitted to several "mess-ups" -- including false police reports --
that resulted in four other cases being dismissed.

The hearing turned into what seemed to many in the courtroom a trial of
Coleman himself. He had run up a string of debts after quitting earlier
jobs in law enforcement. He conceded that he once owned an illegal machine
gun, and he was described by previous employers as dishonest, unreliable, a
racist and, in one case, "a gun nut."

In a separate, civil rights case brought by one defendant, Coleman was
asked in a deposition if he could affirm his earlier testimony at trial. He
responded that some of his sworn testimony was "questionable."

Coleman, 43, could not be reached for comment today.

Technically, the hearing in Tulia last month was to collect evidence for a
challenge filed by four defendants serving prison terms of 20 to 90 years.
They sought to have their convictions overturned based on fresh evidence
about Coleman's past.

"You can't rely on anything he says, even at the risk of letting a guilty
person go," conceded the prosecutor, Hobson. "His testimony caused us
confidence problems that undermined the integrity of the verdicts, and if
you want to call that a travesty of justice, you can."

As a result, Hobson said the state would seek to vacate the convictions of
all 38 defendants once prosecutors and defense lawyers formulate detailed
"findings of fact" for Chapman to submit to the Court of Criminal Appeals.
He said in the event new trials are granted by the court, the state would
not again seek to prosecute any of the defendants.