Guest Column -

LEGAL SYSTEM WORKS IN TULIA?

TULIA -- In Tulia, Texas, in the morning of July 23, 1999, police began
rounding up 46 individuals indicted on the word of Tom Coleman.

Almost four years later, on April 1, 2003, people attending evidentiary
hearings in the Swisher County courtroom in Tulia heard a startling
announcement. The hearings ended abruptly when presiding Judge Ron Chapman
announced that all attorneys involved in the hearings had reached an agreement.

They agreed that Tom Coleman is not a credible witness under oath, and that
the convictions of all 1999 Tulia drug sting defendants should be vacated.
And, when Judge Chapman gets all his paperwork in order, that will be his
recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

The legal system worked in Tulia. Just give the system a few more weeks or
months, and whatever wrongs that may have transpired will be corrected.

That seems to be the gist of the opinion expressed in Amarillo editorials
in recent days. Dave Henry, in his April 13 column, says, "We should have
faith that our system of justice will eventually determine innocence or guilt."

But the criminal justice system is not charged to determine innocence.
Innocence, in theory at least, is presumed. When a person is charged with a
crime, the legal system has the burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt
that the person is guilty as charged.

In the evidentiary hearings, Judge Chapman concluded, and lawyers for the
state concurred, that Coleman's word under oath is simply not credible, and
therefore, all convictions based on his testimony should be vacated. But
the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals still has to act.

The system has not yet worked. Thirteen people are still in prison after
three years, eight and a half months, and still counting. It will likely be
another 90 days before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals renders its verdict.

Henry says callously, "If it takes four years, so be it."

Tell that to the 13 people still locked up. Tell it to their mothers and
fathers, their husbands or wives, their little children. Tell it to those
who were imprisoned but are now out on parole and still have to pay their
parole costs out of a meager minimum-wage salary.

And to the extent the system is working in Tulia, it is because groups like
the Friends of Justice, the NAACP, the ACLU, the Kunstler Fund for Racial
Justice and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund exerted extreme pressure on the
system. It did not work voluntarily.

It would not have worked without the coordinated efforts of an
extraordinarily committed array of individuals and groups dedicating
thousands of hours of effort to force it to work. It would not have worked
had it not been for national media exposure. It would not have worked
without a cadre of "damnyankee" lawyers and Amarillo attorney Jeff
Blackburn working tirelessly and pro bono to call it to account.

To the extent the system is working in Tulia, it is because of the
magnitude of the injustice perpetrated here. The system could still pick up
poor blokes one at a time without fanfare and not stir up the kind of
hornet's nest the Tulia sting provoked. And they will be left with
overworked and underpaid court-appointed attorneys to try to plea them out
with the best deal possible.

Henry is right. Tulia has suffered enough. But the town needs to understand
who inflicted this suffering.

Officers Amos and Massengill of the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task Force
signed off on hiring Tom Coleman as an undercover agent for Tulia. And
Sheriff Stewart hired Tom Coleman without carefully checking his past
employment record.

In the evidentiary hearings, Massengill and Stewart testified about seeing
red flags in Coleman's record. But they ignored the warning signs, hired
him anyway and turned him loose, virtually unsupervised, on the citizenry
of Tulia.

And District Attorney Terry McEachern knew or should have known that
Coleman was unreliable and chose to prosecute these cases anyway. Judge Ed
Self knew but refused to allow Tulia juries to know.

Tulia's experience proves the need for corroborating evidence to the
testimony of undercover agents. Bills requiring just that have been
introduced in the Texas Legislature.

Corroborating evidence is just good biblical principle, demanded by the law
of Moses in Deuteronomy 19:15 and elsewhere.

The Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task Force was culpable in the injustice
that came down in Tulia. Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, has introduced a bill
which would in effect defund the regional task forces. These bills could
help ensure the kind of injustice heaped on the Tulia 46, and on the town
of Tulia, are not repeated. They could help to "let justice roll down like
waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream" (Amos 5:24).

Charles Kiker of Tulia is a retired clergyman.