MOVES CONTINUE TO WIN FREEDOM FOR TULIA 13

Congress to Take a Look

Although the arrests and convictions of some 46 people -- 39 of them
African-American -- swept up in a July 1999 raid in Tulia, Texas, have
now been thoroughly discredited
(http://www.drcnet.org/wol/281.html#tuliavictory)
and the undercover cop involved charged with perjury
(http://www.drcnet.org/wol/284.html#colemanindicted), 13 of those who
were convicted or pled guilty remain behind bars. But perhaps not for
long, as various moves are underway to win their release. And the
Tulia fiasco continues to reverberate far beyond the Texas panhandle,
with a US congressional committee now poised to take a look at not
only at Tulia but also at the broader issue of federal funding of
anti-drug task forces.

In Austin this week, the Texas Senate unanimously passed a bill to
allow the 13 remaining imprisoned Tulia defendants to be released on
bond while the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reviews a state judge's
recommendation that all Tulia defendants get new trials and a special
prosecutor's recommendation that all charges be dropped. Although a
March hearing that led to the recommendations was a resounding
denunciation of undercover lawman Tom Coleman and a repudiation of the
verdicts, the Court of Criminal Appeals is known as a
pro-prosecutorial court (see newsbrief below), and Texas lawmakers are
seeking to cover their bets. The bill would take effect immediately if
passed by two-thirds of the House, or on September 1st if passed by a
simple majority. But while the bill easily passed the Senate and has
support in the House, it remains to be seen whether the lower chamber
will have a chance to vote on it. More than 50 Democratic members of
the House fled the state to neighboring Oklahoma this week in order to
block a vote on redistricting, but because their absence left the
legislative body without a quorum, it also prevents any action on any
other matters.

Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston), the sponsor of the bill, urged his
colleagues in the House to pass the bill this session. "Now the
challenge is to complete the mission by passing this legislation in
the House," Whitmire told the Houston Chronicle. "It is an
embarrassment to the state of Texas to let something like this
happen," Whitmire said. "If we're going to be tough and smart on
crime, we've also got to be fair." The effort to redress the suffering
of the imprisoned defendants also has the support of top state
officials, including Lt. Gov David Dewhurst (R) and Gov. Rick Perry
(R). "This is a real travesty of justice," Dewhurst said. "I think our
only recourse is to release the Tulia 13 on bond until the court of
appeals has made its final decision."

Gov. Perry, for his part, a day earlier called for the Texas Board of
Pardons and Paroles to investigate the cases of the Tulia defendants
to determine whether to grant them clemency. In a letter sent to board
chairman Gerald Garrett, Perry expressed "grave concerns" about the
Tulia verdicts. "After reviewing this information, I have grave
concerns about the potential miscarriage of justice in cases based on
testimony from a sole witness whose truthfulness is in doubt," the
governor wrote.

But Garrett's initial response suggested that unjustly jailed Tulia
victims should not hold their breaths waiting for the board to act.
"There is a lot of emphasis on a timely decision, but we also have a
responsibility to take all the facts into consideration and to move
expeditiously and give every case a full and entire review," Garrett
told the Chronicle. Each case would be investigated independently,
Garrett said, and presented to an 18-member board that could recommend
actions ranging from a full pardon to a commutation. There is no
timetable for action by the board.

And for Jeff Blackburn, the lead attorney seeking justice for the
Tulia 46, the governor's call was a welcome sign but not nearly
enough. "Every single person convicted on the word of Tom Coleman
deserves complete exoneration and a total clearing of their name," he
said. "Any proposal short of that would be an injustice."

While efforts to gain justice for the Tulia victims are underway in
Texas, the scandal is also about to be aired in the US House Judiciary
Committee. On May 7, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the ranking Democrat on
the committee, announced that committee chairman Rep. James
Sensenbrenner (R-WI) had agreed to investigate law enforcement
misdeeds in the Tulia bust. A Judiciary Committee spokesman, Jeff
Lungren, confirmed that Sensenbrenner will hold hearings on the
matter. "Sensenbrenner wants to do active and aggressive oversight of
the federal task force that was involved," Lungren told the Chronicle.
Sensenbrenner was responding to a request from three prominent members
of the Congressional Black Caucus that the committee review the Tulia
bust.

In addition to Conyers, Reps. Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Sheila Jackson
Lee (D-TX) requested the hearings. But the problem of out-of-control
drug law enforcement is not limited to a rogue cop in small-town
Texas, said participants in a May 7 NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund forum in Washington, DC. "Tulia is not just in Texas.
Tulia is all over," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

There are signs that Sensenbrenner and the Judiciary Committee
recognize this and are preparing for a broader review of
federally-funded anti-drug task forces. (Rogue Tulia cop Tom Coleman
was acting on behalf on the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Trafficking
Task Force.) According to a report by Elayne Clift in the May 19 issue
of Newsweek, Sensenbrenner has now "agreed to hold hearings on the
workings of a Justice Department fund that funnels money to local drug
task forces around the country."

It would be good news indeed if Congress were to take a good, hard
look at Justice Department task force funding. By all accounts, the
task forces are rewarded for arrests and convictions, even of
low-level offenders, with more federal funding to make more arrests.
As DRCNet has reported with depressing regularity, these
federally-funded task forces have been running amok all over the country.

Visit the following past Week Online articles for previous DRCNet
reports on task forces abuses:

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/286.html#swatsuit
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/268.html#texastaskforces
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/223.html#texasbacklash
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#impactforce

Visit http://www.fojtulia.org and http://www.kunstler.org for further
information on the Tulia prisoners and the campaign to free them.