|
Jaime
Wheeler
| Denver
Crawford
| Wilf
Hathway previous | Kirstin
Lobato |
Tulia, Texas
This story was first broken in the New York Times in 2002 by reporter
Bob Herbert. It is quite possible this story would not have
been broken internationally if one journalist had not invested
the time and effort to investigate. Injustices which are not
investigated become invisible -- and we know there are many!
The province of Saskatchewan alone could provide many journalists
with employment! The Vopni case and Leon Walchuk are two stories
where cops failed to properly investigate and took the road to
hysteria, resulting in the wholesale smearing -- and in Walchuk's
case, convicting -- of innocent people
- 10 from Tulia could
be denied cash for jail time
Some stuck in legal limbo; Abbott's opinion sought.
By Laylan Copelin, AMERICAN-STATESMAN
STAFF, August 29, 2006
On Monday, Kareem White, one
of 35 Tulia drug defendants pardoned by Texas Gov. Rick Perry
three years ago, got the first half of $100,000 from the state
for being wrongly imprisoned.
In all, 20 residents of the
tiny Panhandle town that was rocked by a drug sting gone wrong
have filed claims of more than $1.3 million against the state.
However, 10 of them are in a legal limbo that could delay - or
prevent - them from collecting for the prison time they served.
Almost 50 people, most of them
black and poor, were arrested in the town of 5,000 people during
an early morning raid in the summer of 1999. They were arrested
on felony drug charges on the word of one undercover officer
whose testimony could not be substantiated later.
Charges against some were dropped,
but 35 were convicted or pleaded guilty in the face of vigorous
prosecutions. They were later pardoned by Perry.
At issue now are 10 former
defendants who were already on probation or parole for other
crimes when they were wrongly accused in 1999 of selling cocaine
and who were accused of violating their parole or probation because
of the drug arrests.
State law allows people who
are wrongly convicted and serve jail time to receive compensation
from the state - $25,000 per year. But it prohibits paying a
person for being wrongly imprisoned on one crime if he or she
is serving a sentence concurrently on another charge - in this
case, the probation or parole violations.
Brent Hamilton, who is representing
19 of the Tulia clients, said it is unfair to penalize people
who might never have violated their parole or probation and gone
to jail if not for the trumped-up drug charges.
"These people were on
probation or parole and were doing fine when they were (wrongly)
arrested," Hamilton said.
Earlier this month, Comptroller
Carole Keeton Strayhorn, whose job includes paying claims against
the state, asked Attorney General Greg Abbott how to handle those
10 claims, which account for almost half of the $1.3 million.
"Although I am fully satisfied
that a great injustice occurred in Tulia and that equity clearly
justifies full payment, there is a statutory issue that I am
compelled to present to you for your opinion," Strayhorn
wrote Abbott.
Strayhorn framed the issue
around the case of Jason Paul Fry, who was serving a probated
term for a drug-possession conviction when he was arrested in
the Tulia raid.
"Technically, this statutory
language appears to disqualify Mr. Fry from entitlement to any
compensation," Strayhorn wrote. "However, the inequity
is that it was his wrongful arrest and conviction for the Tulia
drug charge that caused his probation . . . to be revoked."
The Tulia defendants who were
convicted of selling small amounts of cocaine received sentences
of up to 90 years, and many served up to four years before they
were pardoned.
For any of the 20 claims to
be paid, District Attorney Wally Hatch was required by state
law to write letters to the comptroller explaining that the defendants
were legally entitled to the money.
Hatch, who became the prosecutor
for Tulia six years after the raid, said the controversy - and
the national spotlight that it brought - still burns some residents.
"I think the general consensus
is: There may have been some mistakes made, but there were some
crimes committed as well," Hatch said.
In his letters, Hatch avoided
saying anyone was innocent and just noted that the people filing
the claims had been pardoned by Perry.
The undercover officer who
was responsible for the bogus drug charges worked alone and used
no audio or video surveillance. No drugs were found.
Some groups charged that the
raid was racially motivated.
Hamilton, whose law firms have
represented some of the Tulia defendants since the initial drug
raid, said he understands Hatch's reluctance.
Hamilton said that parts of
Tulia might have had a drug problem but that "things were
exaggerated" in the investigation.
"It's sort of like driving
80 miles per hour in a 70 miles-per-hour zone, and the trooper
wrote you a ticket for 100 miles per hour," Hamilton said.
"Unfortunately it resulted in problems for the defendants,
for the taxpayers, and for the district attorney. It's been tough
on everyone out here."
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 Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
Truth suppress'd, whether
by courts or crooks, will find an avenue to be told. Sheila Steele, injusticebusters.com
If you hold the mouth
of Truth, It will burst out its rib-cage. Somali proverb
Publisher : Sheila
Steele
Got something
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Naked Truth -- (You
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Another target
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Our activism
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Index
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Index to Saskatoon Police stories
This is a pretty good scrapbook
for the 1998-2002 period.
Inquiry into the malicious prosecution of David
Milgaard untanling 36 years of Saskatchewan police and Crown
misconduct: : Opening day 1 | 2
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