Tulia, Texas Defendants Set for Monday Release

By Jeralyn, Section Misconduct
Posted on Sun Jun 15, 2003 at 10:02:23 PM EST
Tags: (all tags)

Share This: Digg!

Free at last....what a travesty that they were in jail at all. The 13 remaining Tulia, Texas defendants are being released on bail Monday. Their ordeal is not over. They still need either to have their convictions overturned or receive pardons.

While everyone else is applauding the three branches of Texas Government for working together to release the 13 on bail, we'd like to take a moment to applaud their several dedicated, pro bono defense counsel that worked years to see their clients released, particularly Jeff Blackburn:

In the last two years, Jeff Blackburn, a solo practitioner in Amarillo, Texas, has been working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund and a handful of other lawyers to get some of the accused off and others, already convicted, out of jail. It's taken more than 2,000 hours and about $39,000 of his own money.

....Blackburn said his motivation came from his experience in Alabama, where he was inspired by the civil rights movement. Civil rights activists encouraged him to become a lawyer and work in his hometown, which is Amarillo. He's been practicing there since 1983. His wife's death last year has meant that the cases have given him a new focus.

"This is the most life-affirming thing I could have done," he said. "It has been a huge gift. How many times does a lawyer, especially a criminal defense lawyer, get a chance to do a big thing that has a such a clear line drawn? In its own way, it's helped to bring back some beauty in my life."

As for the discredited undercover cop, Tom Coleman,

The informant, Tom Coleman, worked for the federally funded Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task Force. He spent 18 months in Tulia. He was ordered suspended from law enforcement by the state because his previous employers in Cochran County charged him with misconduct involving theft and abuse. But he continued to work in Tulia. Coleman's accusations were based entirely on his own testimony, with no drugs, money or other corroboration.

The Washington Post had an excellent article on the case back in January, 2001, available here:

the 18-month drug sting ...is the focus of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and an FBI investigation ordered by the Justice Department's civil