Pubdate: Thu, 29 Aug 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Jim Yardley
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/tulia.htm (Tulia, Texas)

TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL OPENS AN INQUIRY INTO '99 DRUG SWEEP

HOUSTON, Aug. 28 - Attorney General John Cornyn of Texas has opened an 
investigation into a 1999 drug sweep in which about 12 percent of the black 
population of Tulia, Tex., was arrested. The decision failed to appease 
civil rights lawyers, who describe the arrests in an undercover operation 
as atrocities and want the convictions overturned.

Mr. Cornyn, who announced the investigation on Monday, suggested that he 
had opened the inquiry partly because of confusion that had arisen this 
month about whether the United States Justice Department was continuing its 
own civil rights investigation of more than two years.

"The attorney general has grown concerned that there was some confusion 
among some circles about whether the investigation was open and that it was 
moving slowly," said Jane Shepperd, a spokeswoman for Mr. Cornyn.

The confusion arose after a Justice Department official described the 
investigation as closed in a letter to the American Bar Association. 
Justice Department officials now say that letter was "in error" and that 
the investigation is continuing.

The announcement from Mr. Cornyn comes as he is running for a vacant seat 
in the United States Senate against Mayor Ron Kirk of Dallas, who is trying 
to become the state's first black senator. The Tulia cases have not become 
a major issue in the Senate race, but groups including the NAACP Legal 
Defense and Educational Fund Inc., the William Moses Kunstler Fund for 
Racial Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union have criticized the 
drug arrests as racially biased.

Vanita Gupta, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said the value of 
a state investigation was limited, nearly three years after the drug sweep. 
Instead, Ms. Gupta called on Mr. Cornyn to take control of the cases from 
the local district attorney and either seek to overturn the convictions or 
order new trials. She also said she was skeptical of Mr. Cornyn's motivations.

"It smacks too much like kind of a political solution for Cornyn, rather 
than a genuine commitment," Ms. Gupta said. "Cornyn has known about these 
cases for three years. If he wants to see justice done, then he knows that 
he needs to take over these cases. These cases have become a national 
embarrassment to Texas."

In July 1999, 46 people, all but 3 of them black, were arrested on drug 
charges in Tulia, a town of about 5,000 people. In nearly every case, the 
only evidence against the defendants was the testimony of a sole undercover 
agent, Tom Coleman. Mr. Coleman did not use wiretaps for corroboration, and 
records show he often filed shoddy reports and had a previous work record 
in law enforcement that included a misdemeanor charge for stealing gasoline 
from a county pump.

Jeff Blackburn, an Amarillo, Tex., lawyer representing more than 20 
defendants in the cases, said that 13 people remained in jail on sentences 
as long as 320 years. Mr. Blackburn said lawyers were filing motions 
seeking new trials in every case.
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