Justice Prevails in Tulia
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 4/15/2003
Years after ten percent of the black population of Tulia, TX was arrested based on the unsupported testimony of one man, justice may finally come to this small town. "It's been a long time coming. I guess this is what satisfaction feels like," said the mother of Freddie Brookins, one of the convicted.
In 1999, Officer Thomas Coleman claimed that a drug ring was operating out of the community, and although no drugs, weapons, or money was found, 38 people were convicted after trials or guilty pleas. In an extraordinary development, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) announced today that the State of Texas has joined it in urging the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn all of the convictions resulting from the notorious Tulia drug "sting." As a result of the agreement, defense lawyers will spend the next couple of weeks assembling detailed evidence about the circumstances of each of the convictions to support the recommendations that will be sent by a specially designated judge to the Court of Criminal Appeals. Swisher County, where Tulia is located, has already agreed to pay the 38 people $250,000.
Many link the recent arrests to racial tension in the small town. Others point to the contentious "War on Drugs." Many blame this "war" for the high incarceration rate of black and Hispanic males. As of 1997, almost one in ten black males and one in 34 Hispanic males aged 25-29 were in prison. Black males have a 29 percent chance over their lifetime of serving in prison while white males have only a four percent chance.
According to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (NAACPLDF), what happened in Tulia was a predictable end result of the "War on Drugs." "What happened in Tulia constitutes a serious civil rights problem because...[of] unconstitutional practices that can be, and too often are, sanctioned by the 'War on Drugs.'"
Incidents like Tulia are "representative of the failed 'War on Drugs', which disproportionately targets minorities, and also often includes racially-biased police practices and secures convictions only after prosecutorial misconduct," NAACPLDF concluded.
