SILENCE ON TULIA ECHOES IN CAMPAIGN

Election Day Draws Nigh, But We Still Hold 13 People From Tulia in Texas
Prisons Unjustly

Some of us were reminded of the Tulia 13 a few days ago when a judge
ordered the release of one of the Dallas Sheetrock bust victims, Jaime
Chavez. He lost more than two years of his freedom because of false testimony.

Candidates running for governor and U.S. senator have told Texas voters
that the Tulia drug bust mess is not a campaign issue. They have avoided
taking any stand. They don't mention this festering boil in their speeches.

The 1999 bust focused national attention on the little Panhandle town where
an investigation by Tom Coleman, a lone itinerant undercover agent whose
methods and reputation are under fire, led to the roundup and arrests of 43
people.

Coleman's uncorroborated testimony resulted in many convictions and long
prison sentences, but also in lawsuits, protests, demonstrations,
announcements of federal and state investigations (that drag on without
conclusion), and changes in state law and policy.

Statewide implications As a result of the Tulia furor, the Texas
Legislature last session passed a measure requiring corroborating evidence
for the testimony of confidential informants in drug stings.

Dallas prosecutors soon thereafter discovered many cases that not only
lacked such corroboration but were based on fake drugs. Much of what police
had seized as cocaine or amphetamines turned out to be baggies of finely
ground Sheetrock.

In fact, a couple of "cocaine" seizures that Dallas officials boasted set
records actually were only powdered wallboard.

Dozens of cases were tossed out, dismissed, overturned. Several cops were
implicated. It has been a major scandal that would have gone undiscovered
except for the chain of events started by the Tulia injustices.

The post-conviction writ of habeas corpus filed by the ACLU lawyer to
obtain Chavez's release points out that the only witness, the confidential
informant, admitted in an affidavit that he lied about it because: "I was
told that it was necessary to obtain a conviction and I was in the process
of working off my own narcotics case to avoid a 15-year sentence."

This naturally leads a person to wonder how many cases in other cities in
Texas and across the United States have been based upon lies and deceit.
And wonder why it takes so long for the system to correct its mistakes. And
wonder why the 13 people from Tulia are still in prison.

Investigations drag on Jeff Blackburn, an Amarillo lawyer who has been
working to free the Tulia 13, wrote a 10-page letter last month to John
Neal at the Texas attorney general's office regarding the state-level
investigation of Coleman's job on Tulia.

Blackburn outlined several "key problems present in these cases," including
false accusations, faulty identification methods, faked reports, perjury
and "cases made without legal authority."

The state investigation was started only recently by Attorney General John
Cornyn, who is running for the U.S. Senate. There are several reasons to
suspect that he announced the investigation in an effort to mute the
growing criticism about the Tulia injustices.

There are just as many reasons to suspect that the federal investigation is
more talk than action. We'd best not try holding our breaths until either
one is concluded.

Meanwhile, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals a few days ago asked the
trial court of two of the men convicted in the Tulia sting to clarify
whether they were convicted solely on the word of Coleman, and whether the
state failed to turn over information from Coleman's background that might
have cast doubt on his testimony.

There may be more. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund has helped
get large national law firms to handle habeas corpus writs for all the
Tulia defendants.

Looks like our state's top office holders, and those who want to be, would
be embarrassed to have outsiders coming in to straighten out Texas
injustices. Looks like they would be promising to do something about it if
we'd vote for them.