Pubdate: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 2003 The Dallas Morning News Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117 Author: Will Harrell Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/tulia.htm (Tulia, Texas) TULIA NOT AS RARE AS WE THINK More than four years after the infamous Tulia bust, Gov. Rick Perry finally has allowed justice to be served by acting on the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles' recommendation to pardon the 35 convicted defendants whose cases were pending before the State Court of Criminal Appeals. Mr. Perry's action offers a rare opportunity to feel proud of our state leaders after a summer of bitter partisan battling. We are grateful to the governor for doing the right thing. But our battle is far from over. The Tulia defendants ultimately, if very belatedly, received justice because of the persistent demands and commendable efforts of their families and friends, civil rights and civil liberties organizations and a small phalanx of volunteer attorneys. An intense media focus also was instrumental in keeping the Tulia story on the public's mind. But in few other cases are so many resources available or mobilized or news stories written. The Tulia sting drew international attention, in part because 39 of 46 defendants were black. But those numbers hardly represent a unique case. Statewide, black people regularly are targeted in drug stings set up by regional narcotics task forces like the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Trafficking Task Force, which through racial bias and institutional recklessness made Tulia a household name. Like the Tulia defendants, many blacks are convicted based upon the uncorroborated word of an undercover police officer, with no additional evidence to show they ever committed a crime. We expect the Tulia saga to remain an international symbol of the many failures plaguing the Texas justice system - particularly the continued operations of regional drug task forces, which are inefficient and wasteful. The Panhandle Regional Narcotics Trafficking Task Force and its kin are structured as unaccountable extra layers of bureaucracy that behave as free agents, financed by federal grant funds, and don't report to any elected government body. Most of them focus too much attention on low-level drug stings in poor, minority neighborhoods and never track drugs "up the ladder" to big-time drug importers. And many of them perform racial profiling on Texas highways, using traffic stops as a pretext to search cars randomly for drugs. The court system, the Legislature and, now, Mr. Perry have recognized and publicly acknowledged that what happened in Tulia was wrong. What they haven't done is to change the criminal justice system in order to avoid future "Tulias," either by eliminating drug task forces or by changing existing laws that honor convictions based solely on the word of undercover officers. One person's word shouldn't qualify as evidence "beyond a reasonable doubt" - even when that person is a law enforcement officer. Mr. Perry deserves tremendous credit for pardoning the final 35 Tulia defendants. We hope he and the Legislature will demonstrate leadership in 2005 and fix the failures that created Tulia by eliminating regional narcotics task forces and ensuring that no one is convicted on an undercover officer's uncorroborated word. Will Harrell is executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. His e-mail address is Suzy "Who would believe that a democratic government would pursue for eight decades a failed policy that produced tens of millions of victims and trillions of dollars of illicit profits for drug dealers, cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, increased crime and destroyed inner cities, fostered widespread corruption and violations of human rights - and all with no success in achieving the stated and unattainable objective of a drug free America?" Milton Friedman, winner of 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize for economic science "You can get over an addiction but you can never get over a conviction." Jack Cole, Retired undercover police officer www.dpft.org - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Attachment: http://www.mapinc.org/temp/part8843.html - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom