Pubdate: Sun, 13 Apr 2003
Source: Amarillo Globe-News (TX)
Section: Opinion
Copyright: 2003 Amarillo Globe-News
Contact:  http://amarillonet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/13
Author: Charles Kiker
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/tulia.htm (Tulia, Texas)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)

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).

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Charles Kiker of Tulia is a retired clergyman.
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