Tulia, Texas Defendants Set for Monday Release
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.