CRIMINAL APPEALS COURT SHOULD NOT DELAY IN SETTING TULIA 13 FREE

There is no excuse for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to keep 13
wrongly convicted Tulia residents behind bars. Defense attorneys, special
prosecutors and retired state district Judge Ron Chapman all recommend that
the convictions of 38 Tulia residents on trumped up drug charges be
dismissed.

That's a chorus even the often tone-deaf criminal appeals court should find
impossible to ignore. Justice demands that the court move swiftly to free
the 13 of the 38 who are still imprisoned for crimes they obviously didn't
commit. They were sent to prison after the bogus 1999 drug busts by former
undercover police officer Tom Coleman, who has since been indicted on
perjury charges in connection with the case.

While the court is deliberating whether to overturn those convictions, it
should release the Tulia 13 on bail. That's the recommendation of Tulia
special prosecutors Rod Hobson and John Nation.

"First of all, we want them to reverse the convictions all of them," Hobson
said Monday. "We would sure hope (the Court of Criminal Appeal judges) would
take what the judge, prosecutors and the defense all say and go along with
it.

"In the meantime, these people have been locked up for years. We put on the
record that as prosecutors, we are recommending that the court grant bond."

We couldn't agree more. From the beginning, this case had the stench of
injustice.

Forty-six Tulia residents were arrested on drug trafficking charges after an
18-month, one-man drug sting by Coleman. Of those arrested, 39 were African
American -- one-tenth of Tulia's black population. No money, drugs or other
evidence was recovered during the arrests. Coleman didn't use recorders or
surveillance. He didn't have witnesses to back up the alleged drug buys in
public places. He kept track of those buys by scribbling them on his leg and
thigh. All-white juries convicted Tulia residents solely on the say-so of
Coleman, who was fond of calling African Americans "niggers." Coleman's
ex-wife swore in an affidavit that he carried a Ku Klux Klan card in his
wallet.

After seeing what happened to the defendants who fought their convictions by
going to trial -- they received sentences of 20 years to 90 years -- others
pleaded guilty. Who can blame them for giving up on a system that didn't
require evidence, witnesses or a credible police officer?

Other questions linger: Why did prosecutors go to trial with this case in
the first place? Why didn't the prosecution turn over facts about Coleman
that would have helped the defense? Why did the Swisher County sheriff allow
Coleman to continue undercover work after learning of Coleman's dubious
record? (Coleman had been forced out of other law enforcement jobs because
he was untrustworthy.)

This matter doesn't end with Coleman. Hobson said Texas Attorney General
Greg Abbott, the federal government or Chapman have the power to authorize
an investigation of the rest of the Tulia posse, the law enforcement higher
ups and prosecutors responsible for this miscarriage of justice that wrongly
sent a farmer, mother of two young children and other working people to
prison.

We urge them to use that authority. In the meantime, the Court of Criminal
Appeals should turn loose the Tulia 13.

Dean Becker
11215 Oak Spring
Houston, Tx. 77043
281-752-9198

Please include email: dean@unvarnishedtruth.org

Reverend, Church of God's Evident Truth; Reporter, KPFT Radio, Houston
President, Houston NORML; Community Liaison, Drug Policy Forum of Texas
Author: Century of Lies, Declaration of Evident Truth; Publisher: Drug
Truth
Liaison, New York Times Drug Policy Forum; Producer: Cannabis Odyssey I-IV

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