COCAINE SCANDAL

Leadership Has To Step Forward

Which is worse - that a guilty person is released, or that an innocent
person is deprived of liberty for months or even years? According to a
founding principle of the criminal justice system, it is the latter.
It is generally accepted legal dogma that it is better for 10 guilty
people to go free than one innocent person be imprisoned.

But what society wants to be in a position to make that choice?
Regrettably, that is the position in which Dallas County finds itself.

Resourceful defense attorneys have seized upon the "reasonable doubt"
created by the "fake drug" scandal to demand that prosecutors move to
vacate convictions in cases going back five years. One case - which
hinged on the word of the same confidential informant involved in the
drug scandal - involves a suspect who has been in jail for two years.

The public's faith in the criminal justice system has been shaken. The
discovery by the Dallas County district attorney's office that what
was thought to be illegal narcotics was actually, in many instances,
ground-up gypsum has given prosecutors no choice but to dismiss dozens
of cases.

That could lead to more trouble if it turns out any of the suspects
were actually guilty of intending to traffic in a substance that they
believed to be an illegal drug.

Trouble, we have plenty of. What we need is accountability. The buck
has to stop.

Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill deserves credit for calling
the FBI in to investigate the mess and facing the guns last week by
plopping himself down in the hottest "hot seat" in television
journalism - the interview chair on the ABC News program Nightline.
Mr. Hill was clear and forthright in his answers, and he did not
flinch from attempting to answer even the toughest of questions.

But there is room on that hot seat for a couple of other public
officials. Police Chief Terrell Bolton and City Manager Ted Benavides,
whose office supervises the Police Department, also have questions to
answer about the police procedures that allowed this scam. Mr. Bolton
and Mr. Benavides probably are happy to stay in the background even if
it means allowing Mr. Hill's office to take most of the heat. But real
leadership demands more than that.

There is plenty of responsibility to go around, and our city officials
need to step up, explain what happened on their watch and tell the
public what steps are being taken to correct an appalling series of
mistakes.