Pubdate: Fri, 9 May 2003 Source: Austin American-Statesman (TX) Copyright: 2003 Austin American-Statesman Contact: http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editions/today/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/32 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/tulia.htm (Tulia, Texas) LEGISLATORS MUST ACT TO FREE TULIA 13 ON BAIL IF COURT DOESN'T MOVE Texas legislators should move quickly to pass legislation aimed at freeing 13 Texans who were railroaded into prison on bogus drug charges. The bill, filed by Sen. John Whitmire, is aimed at releasing Tulia residents pending action by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The 12 men and one woman from Tulia have been behind bars for about four years now and remain there despite a month-old recommendation that their convictions be thrown out. Judge Ron Chapman made that recommendation after the undercover police officer whose testimony convicted those 13 and 25 others was discredited. Special prosecutors last week agreed that those 38 convictions should be thrown out and asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to do so and to immediately release the 13 people on bail. If the state Court of Criminal Appeals can't or won't act on recommendations for bail, then lawmakers should pass Senate Bill 1948 by Whitmire, a Democrat from Houston and chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. "It is unconscionable that people are still incarcerated when the only witness against them has been completely discredited and indicted for perjury," Whitmire said. "Justice demands that they be released and reunited with their families." So true. The continued imprisonment of the Tulia 13 rubs salt on a festering sore on the Texas justice system. Delaying their release only deepens the injustice and certainly prolongs the suffering they and their families have endured. What better news could two young children receive this Sunday -- Mother's Day -- than their mom will soon be home? That mom, Kizzie White, was ensnared by an obviously racially motivated drug sting by then-undercover agent Tom Coleman. Coleman targeted African Americans in his 18-month unorthodox drug operation that resulted in the 1999 arrests of nearly 10 percent of Tulia's black residents. No drugs, money, weapons or other evidence were recovered in the arrests. No one witnessed the drug buys Coleman claims he made in public places. He didn't use surveillance or recorders. The drugs Coleman presented as "evidence" didn't bear the fingerprints of Tulia defendants. Coleman didn't produce notes or records. He said he scribbled details of those drug buys on his leg and thigh. Coleman admitted in testimony to referring to African Americans as "niggers," and his ex-wife swore in an affidavit that he carried a Ku Klux Klan membership card. Thirty-eight people were convicted on the uncorroborated, unsubstantiated testimony of Coleman. For that effort, he was awarded Texas Lawman of the Year in 1999. Coleman never could have gotten away with that deed without cooperation from Swisher County prosecutors, the sheriff and the trial judge. He also got help from the all-white juries who convicted dozens of folks on no more than Coleman's say-so. Since April, the American-Statesman has urged editorially that the state criminal court arrange bail for the Tulia 13 or that state legislators pass legislation to free them. We also have urged the federal government or state Attorney General Greg Abbott to investigate the role of the Swisher County sheriff, prosecutors and other higher-ups who were, at the very least, complicitous in this scheme. Whitmire's legislation is a first step. Hearings on the bill begin next week, and it must be approved by both the Senate and the House. Then it goes to Gov. Rick Perry. We urge legislators to act expeditiously as they did in an Austin case in 2001 to help bring about immediate freedom for two wrongly convicted men after DNA proved their innocence. Another positive development was the decision this week by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to investigate the 1999 Tulia drug bust. The whole episode warrants an independent, transparent investigation to heal this sore on Texas justice. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom