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Tulia..unbelieavable

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by DaDakota, Jun 18, 2003.

  1. DaDakota

    DaDakota Balance wins
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    Pgabrial and I have been arguing in the Hangout forum about Spike Lee and Tulia came up.

    He made a great point about there not being a thread about it on the BBS.

    As I was already considering a thread about it, thought I would go ahead and post one up...not sure if it is in the right forum, but nevertheless.

    Personally, I hope they fry the cop that put them into jail for 4+ years each...and anything the people get in the way of compensation from the penal system is ok with me too.....

    I can not believe this still happens....makes me sick.

    DD
     
  2. DaDakota

    DaDakota Balance wins
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    Finally, Justice In Tulia

    By Silja J.A. Talvi, AlterNet
    April 3, 2003

    Officer Tom Coleman must have been gloating in the early morning hours of July 23, 1999.


    As 46 men and women were shaken out of their beds and paraded in front of TV cameras in this small, rural town in the Texas Panhandle, Coleman seemed to feel good about what he had just done as an undercover drug agent working for the Swisher County Sheriff's Department.


    He's not wearing much of a smirk today. Owing to a startling twist in a case that has come to represent all that is misguided about the American drug war, the truth about Coleman and what happened in Tulia has finally been exposed.


    At a special hearing on Monday, Dallas Judge Ron Chapman announced that Coleman was "not a credible witness," and immediately recommended new trials be granted for all who had been swept up and incarcerated after that morning's drug sting. Within hours, the state's prosecution had agreed to throw out all the convictions, admitting that the entire debacle had been a "travesty of justice." Prosecutors said they would not retry the defendants.


    After four years, the Tulia 46 may finally see justice served.


    Racial Overtones


    The Tulia case attracted national attention because all of the early morning arrests were made without drug evidence, audio or video surveillance, corroborating witnesses, or comprehensive note-taking of any kind.


    Out of the 46 arrests, 22 men and women received prison sentences – up to 99 years in length. As if to confirm the guilt of those accused, over half of the defendants wound up pleading guilty in exchange for probation or somewhat shorter prison sentences.


    In this mostly white Texan town, something that wasn't lost on anyone was the fact that 39 of the 46 people arrrested were African American - comprising nearly 15 percent of the town's African American population. (Most of the remaining seven were whites involved in interracial relationships.)


    On its face, the racial overtones of the situation were so obvious that the case soon attracted attention from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and the State Attorney General's office. (The DOJ, however, failed to call for a single oversight hearing or produce a single report on the situation. It was New York Times columnist Bob Herbert who finally seemed to light a tiny flame under their federal feet with his outraged writings on the subject.)


    Among those arrested in Tulia were many bright young adults with no criminal histories to speak of, an elderly hog farmer, and single mothers who had never left their own small town.


    As the post-conviction appeals mounted, it was revealed that Coleman had an extensive background of making racist comments about African Americans and Latinos, in addition to past allegations of sexual harassment, misconduct, and skipping out of town leaving unpaid debts.


    Tip of the Iceberg


    But what happened in Tulia – or what was allowed to happen – is far from being an isolated case.


    "It is really important for people to understand that this is not a case of misconduct with respect to one rogue cop," explains Deborah Small of the Drug Policy Alliance, which initiated a nationwide effort to bring attention to the Tulia case. "Throughout the country, poor communities are victimized every day by these same kinds of polices that provide incentives for [law enforcement] to make as many arrests as possible."


    "What happened to the people of Tulia should serve as a wake-up call," affirms Vincent Schiraldi, president of the Justice Policy Institute.


    Indeed, Tulia should serve as a wake-up call, because the American drug war has evolved into the most currently visible symptom of an absolutist law-and-order mindset. It has sucked state and federal budgets dry and fed an insatiable prison system; it has taken precedence over constitutional rights to privacy, unreasonable search and seizure and due process – no matter what a person's color, class or creed.


    The drug war, and the attendant concentration of power into the hands of prosecutors and away from judges, individuals and their defense attorneys, has become a full-blown frontal assault on the integrity of the American criminal justice system.


    It's time to call all of this for what it is, as Vanita Gupta of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund says from Tulia: "A national shame."


    "Tulia is just the tip of the iceberg," she adds. "We do feel victorious – and hope that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirms Judge Chapman's recommendation – but we also know that the problem is much deeper than what happened here."


    In particular, says Gupta, a careful accountability for how drug war monies are used – and to what effect – is something that the DOJ needs to begin to address in earnest, rather than doling out huge sums of funds and being content to sit back as the drug arrest numbers soar.


    The events in the Tulia case provide a stark example of the realities of drug prosecutions all over the country," notes Jeff Robinson, president of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "Defendants are often faced with the dilemma of asserting their factual innocence at the risk of being wrongly convicted and serving horrendous prison sentences."


    What Robinson describes is precisely what happened in Tulia, as dozens of men and women watched with mounting horror as their neighbors and friends were found guilty and received long prison terms. With hopes of eventually being reunited with their families and having a semblance of a life after incarceration, these Tulia residents pleaded guilty in exchange for more favorable treatment from the prosecution.


    Other Times, Other Tulias


    Last fall, I watched one Tulia resident, Mattie White, stand in front of a small room of reporters, struggling to find a way to put her grief into words. Four of White's relatives were arrested that morning in 1999. A son and a daughter wound up in prison, so far away from her that she had only seen them twice in the years since their separation.


    I watched as White, a big, strong woman – a full-time prison guard herself – trembled in front of the room. Mattie wanted nothing more than to be able to see and hold her children who had been sent hundreds of miles away to sit in isolated concrete cells.


    Today, says Gupta, the mood in Tulia is different. Said Mattie White, "We've been praying for this for four years, and we haven't ever given up." White has hope that she'll be reunited with her kids, and the lawyers who took on the legal challenge in Texas feel good about what they've been able to accomplish.


    For Mattie's sake, and for all those who worked so hard to expose the truth in Tulia, we should be overjoyed. But everyone who has been touched by this case knows that there are other Tulias out there and other mothers like Mattie who also want their children to come home. And it's for their sake – ultimately, for all our sake – that the direction of the senseless drug war needs to be stopped in its tracks


    Link
     
  3. red

    red Member

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    so were they involved in drug dealing or not?
     
  4. RocketMan Tex

    RocketMan Tex Member

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    I'm right there with you 100%. Tulia was an absolute travesty of justice, and I hope the victims sue the hell out of everyone responsible.

    If anyone needs evidence that the War on Drugs must end, this is it.
     
  5. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    That's not the point.


    You know, everytime I read the current legalization of drugs thread going on right now, I think about this case because some of the things being touched on in that thread are mentioned in this article.

     
  6. red

    red Member

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    sure it is...that's the exact point of my question.
     
  7. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    Who the hell knows or for that matter cares at this point. Whether you are guilty or not, you shouldn't be locked up for any crime with the only evidence being the word of a police officer who clearly has an agenda.

    But in the environment of the War on Drugs, that becomes a possibility.

    If all 46 are guilty, does it make a difference to you? Maybe it does, but that's not the point, everyone deserves a fair trial, and the government's eagerness against the war on drugs makes it tough in cases involving drugs and makes situations like this possible.
     
  8. red

    red Member

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    well...umm that would be, hence why i asked the question.

    yes it makes a difference to me. and once again that would be the point of my question.
     
  9. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    Well no one knows, it has already been decided that it won't go back to court, so we may never know.
     
  10. red

    red Member

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    fair enough...it doesnt change my opinion that this cop is a douchebag and deserves to go to jail. but if these 46 individuals never delt drugs in the first place and the whole thing was a scam on top of shoddy police work then i would have more pity for them.
     
  11. No Worries

    No Worries Member

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    How about these questions:

    What was the evidence used to convict those that were tried and found guilty by a jury? I suspect the jury would want to see a little weed or something in order to convict.

    If there was evidence, was the search properly done?

    Were any houses searched in which no drugs were found? If so, what percentage of the houses searched were clean?

    etc.
     
  12. GladiatoRowdy

    GladiatoRowdy Member

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    No, the cop got introduced to a whole bunch of drug users and their families and made up the rest. He didn't have audio or videotape, no notes, no drugs, nothing but his testimony.
     
    #12 GladiatoRowdy, Jun 18, 2003
    Last edited: Jun 18, 2003
  13. GladiatoRowdy

    GladiatoRowdy Member

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    Wow, we really are on the same page. I posted a link to this article in the "Children addicted to drugs" thread and it got pretty much overlooked. This is a prime example of how prohibition is an antiquated system that needs to be rethought.
     
  14. GladiatoRowdy

    GladiatoRowdy Member

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    Here is the link:

    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/154.html#tulia

    And here is the story:

    Tulia: Drug Warriors Decimate Texas Town's Black Community, But Fight is Just Beginning

    In everyday usage, "to decimate" means to wipe out, to cause great damage to, to destroy a large number of the enemy. Literally, it means to kill, destroy, or eliminate one out of ten. Either sense of the word is appropriate in describing what drug-fighting sheriff, a gung-ho prosecutor, a shady undercover cop, and the good jurors of Swisher County, Texas, did to the small African-American community in the town of Tulia.

    In July 1999, after an 18-month undercover investigation by a lone undercover deputy, Tom Coleman, police swept down on Tulia with indictments for 46 "known drug dealers," 40 of whom were black. Such numbers may seem unremarkable in Houston's 4th Ward, inner city Dallas, or other large cities where such sweeps are common. But Tulia, located in the vast flatness of the Texas Panhandle south of Amarillo, has a population of 4700, including 232 black residents.

    When the dust settled after the 1999 arrests, 17% of Tulia's black community was under indictment for felony drug distribution charges. They have been leaving for long stays in the Texas prison system ever since. Swisher County juries convicted and sentenced young first-time offenders eligible for probation to 20 and 25-year sentences. One man with a prior conviction got 90 years. But the hardest hit of all was William Cash Love, a white man who fathered a child with a local black woman. On the basis of a previous drug conviction and finding him guilty of making several drug deliveries -- the largest being an ounce of crack -- jurors gave Love a 435-year sentence. That is not a typo.

    According to the Texas American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which last Friday filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Swisher County law enforcement officials, what happened in Tulia is an egregious example of racially biased policing.

    "Tulia is the latest horror story in the US war on drugs," Texas ACLU Executive Director Will Harrell told DRCNet. Clearly outraged, Harrell didn't mince words. "People need to think about the Geneva conventions, which make genocide a prohibited act. Tulia shows once again that it is a policy and practice of US law enforcement in waging their war on drugs."

    "In one operation on one day, local law enforcement, with funds from the DEA, savaged the African-American community in Tulia, tearing parents away from their children and leaving 35 war orphans," added Harrell, referring to children who had at least one parent jailed.

    The Amarillo branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) agreed, accusing the sheriff of targeting blacks in the investigation. On Tuesday, Amarillo NAACP president Alphonso Vaughn told a rally in support of Tulia's black residents that the local chapter will ask the national NAACP leadership to let it join in the lawsuit, the Amarillo Globe-News reported.

    The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Yul Bryant, who was held in jail for seven months on cocaine distribution charges. Those charges were eventually dropped after undercover deputy Coleman admitted he wasn't "100% sure" he had actually bought cocaine from Bryant. Bryant was more fortunate than Billy Wafer, who, according to the ACLU's Harrell, will soon become a co-plaintiff in Bryant's lawsuit. Wafer also spent months in jail before questions about informer Coleman's credibility got him released pending trial.

    Even Wafer's small victory in temporarily regaining his freedom reveals a disturbing picture of Swisher County justice. Wafer had six months left to go on a 10-year probation for mar1juana possession when he was arrested and jailed for arranging the sale of an eightball (3.5 grams) of cocaine. At a probation revocation hearing, Deputy Coleman testified he had met Bryant at a convenience store to do the deal, but Wafer had a rock solid alibi: He was at work, and he had timecards and his boss's supporting testimony to back him up.

    State District Judge Edward Self rejected Coleman's testimony, declined to revoke Wafer's probation, and ordered him released pending trial. But although Coleman's discredited story was the only evidence against Wafer, District Attorney McEachern did not move to drop the charges, nor did Judge Self order them dismissed. Instead, McEachern offered to let Wafer plead to a reduced charge with no jail time.

    Wafer declined the offer because he is innocent and "I want the justice system to work," he told the Houston Chronicle. He instead filed a criminal perjury complaint against Coleman.

    The cases of Bryant and Wafer only hint at the problems with Deputy Coleman's credibility. He won the Texas Lawman of the Year award for his work in Tulia, but that was before his own checkered past became widely known.

    The 41-year-old son of a Texas Ranger, Coleman had abandoned previous deputy positions in Pecos and Cochran counties. In both cases, according to recent Texas press accounts, he left without notice and without paying outstanding debts. In 1996, Cochran County Sheriff Ken Burke wrote to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to notify the agency that Coleman had quit in the middle of his shift and left debts totaling $6,931.82.

    "It is my opinion that an officer should uphold the law. Mr. Coleman should not be in law enforcement," wrote the sheriff.

    Unable to collect, after two years Cochran County issued a theft warrant against Coleman. Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart booked his employee but did not jail him and gave him a week to take care of the matter. Coleman did not do so, and in August of 1998 was suspended from his undercover duties until he made restitution. On August 17th, 1998, Coleman paid up, the charges were dropped, and the undercover work resumed.

    Testifying in Wafer's probation revocation hearing, Coleman denied having an arrest record. That testimony is the basis for Wafer's perjury complaint.

    A family court investigator who interviewed family friends, relatives, and coworkers during Coleman's 1994 divorce turned up even more damaging information about the deputy. In papers filed in Pecos County Court, several interviewees used terms such as "paranoid," "a compulsive liar," and "unstable" to describe him. One former co-worker in the Pecos County Sheriff's Office said, "Tom can lie to you when the truth would sound better."

    In the Tulia cases, Coleman's word was critical, because none of the supposed undercover buys were recorded, nor were there any witnesses. And, Coleman testified, he did not even keep permanent notes, instead scribbling information on his leg or stomach.

    Coleman's testimony and affidavits contributed to the severity of many of the sentences. He swore that many of the alleged buys took place within 1,000 feet of a school zone, thus making the defendants vulnerable to a life sentence under Texas law. Again, there was no corroborating evidence.

    That did not bother Swisher County juries, which convicted 11 people on Coleman's testimony alone. With the exception of three people who have so far avoided arrest and Wafer, who awaits trial, the remaining defendants pled guilty after seeing their friends and relatives sentenced to decades, sometimes centuries, in prison by hard-nosed jurors.

    Neither were the jurors bothered by another oddity in the cases. Although by all accounts, crack was the drug of choice among the young and poor in Tulia, almost every defendant was arrested for delivering powder cocaine.

    Wafer, for one, is suspicious about the powder cocaine. Those who were arrested, he told the Houston Chronicle, did not have the money to buy $200 eightballs of powder; rocks of crack costing about $20 were more in their league.

    Wafer isn't the only one wondering. Plainview attorney Brent Hamilton, who was appointed to represent some of the defendants, told the Chronicle, "What I want to know is where that powder cocaine came from, because it sure didn't come from my clients."

    Hamilton has obtained a court order to have the powder cocaine evidence tested to see if it came from a single source, the clear implication being that Coleman himself provided the cocaine, cut if with other substances, and used it to beef up the charges. The tests have not yet been completed.

    For the ACLU's Harrell, the last week's lawsuit is only the beginning. "Within the next month," he told DRCNet, "everyone indicted will be a plaintiff in the lawsuit. And we will soon file a second civil rights lawsuit on behalf of the families who have suffered a direct emotional and financial impact."

    "We're going after individuals and institutions for conspiracy to violate constitutional rights, particularly the 4th Amendment's guarantee of freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and the equal protection provisions of the 14th Amendment," explained Harrell.

    And, he added, "We have relayed information to the US Department of Justice asking them to investigate and file federal criminal charges against Swisher County law enforcement. On October 13th, we will file a complaint with Justice asking them to defund the Panhandle Narcotics Task Force."

    Task force funds, some of which come from the DEA, paid for Coleman's investigations.

    But for Harrell and the black community in Tulia alike, the ultimate goal is freedom for those sitting behind prison bars. Said Harrell, "We are now coordinating the appeals process and gearing up a habeas corpus campaign asking for retrials. But this is ultimately a political problem and will require a political solution."

    "We have to turn up the heat and come up with enough smoking guns to make this a clemency issue," said Harrell.

    That is beginning to happen. The story got little attention until a groundbreaking investigative report by the Texas Observer's Nate Blakeslee exposed the stink of racism and injustice. But with defense lawyers, local residents, and the Amarillo NAACP raising a storm of protest, the case has gradually made the media radar, at least in Texas. Now, with the ACLU lawsuit and publicity generated by the Texas Journey for Justice, the tale of Tulia appears to be reaching critical mass.

    Tulia residents did their part in the campaign last week when they journeyed to Austin, the state capital, to meet and rally with the Texas Journey for Justice, a 200-member caravan organized by the Drug Policy Foundation of Texas. (See related story below.)

    Anita Barrow, whose twin sons are each serving 20 years as a result of the bust, was one of the women who made the daylong journey by bus. She came, she told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, because there is no justice for poor minorities in Tulia. "If you don't got money, or if you're not white, or if you're white but you hang around with blacks, it's the same thing," Barrow said. "No justice."

    Harrell agrees. "This is an obvious injustice," he fumed.

    Attorney Hamilton elaborated. "This case has got to be one of the most outrageous cases I have ever seen," he said. "What happened in Tulia is a real abomination and a real injustice that has done incredible damage to a lot of human beings. They deserve a real day in court."

    Mattie White, a Tulia grandmother who saw three children, a niece, and a son-in-law taken away, told the Houston Chronicle she just wants her family back. "It's real lonesome now. It's not the same as having those kids around."

    Nate Blakeslee's piece can be found online at http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2000-07-28/pols_feature3.html.
     
  15. GladiatoRowdy

    GladiatoRowdy Member

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    In case you didn't read the previous story, here is a particularly relevant portion.

    In the Tulia cases, Coleman's word was critical, because none of the supposed undercover buys were recorded, nor were there any witnesses. And, Coleman testified, he did not even keep permanent notes, instead scribbling information on his leg or stomach.

    Coleman's testimony and affidavits contributed to the severity of many of the sentences. He swore that many of the alleged buys took place within 1,000 feet of a school zone, thus making the defendants vulnerable to a life sentence under Texas law. Again, there was no corroborating evidence.

    That did not bother Swisher County juries, which convicted 11 people on Coleman's testimony alone. With the exception of three people who have so far avoided arrest and Wafer, who awaits trial, the remaining defendants pled guilty after seeing their friends and relatives sentenced to decades, sometimes centuries, in prison by hard-nosed jurors.
     
  16. StupidMoniker

    StupidMoniker I lost a bet

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    Is it possible that he was telling the truth? Also, my client was much more likely to be a crack dealer than a coke dealer, doesn't seem like the greatest defense. I think they should investigate his testimony, but new trials should wait for new evidence, not the fact that he said he was not arrested, even though he technically was, because he served no time, and was just told to pay his debt. Basically the same as a fix-it ticket. If the coke all came from the same source and no supplier can be found, that would certainly merit a new trial.
     
    #16 StupidMoniker, Jun 19, 2003
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2003
  17. Ottomaton

    Ottomaton Member
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    Additionally, Coleman was arrested for theft and abuse of power, but the Tulia sherrif and the judge did everything possible to cover it up, driving Coleman to the county line to arrest him, and brokering a deal so that Coleman could pay back the $7000 he stole so that the theft charges would be dropped. At the trials the judge suppressed all this information as well as information on Coleman's prior arrests.

    From what I understand at the appeal the circut court judge basically begged the city of Tulia to at least admit that Coleman was not a reliable witness in order to stop the precedings out of embarassment for the city. Still, there are plenty of yokels who just dont get it. From what I understand, nobody in the town has even said "sorry" or the like to the victims. They just sit around and stew about how the real shame is that a one or two of the people might have been guilty, but all 46 are now free.
     
  18. Ottomaton

    Ottomaton Member
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  19. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    The point is no one should go to jail, especially 46 people on the testimony of one man who didn't even keep good records, and who was caught in obivious lies. I'm sure some people were guilty, but that's not the point, the point is how this case was prosecuted.
     
  20. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    Anyone find it ironic that Tulia is in Swisher County.
     

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