Jury Recommends Probation for Former Tulia Drug Agent

[Judi Lynn]

Saturday January 15, 2005

Jury Recommends Probation for Former Tulia Drug Agent

By BETSY BLANEY
Associated Press Writer

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) -- The lone undercover agent in a sting that sent dozens of black people to prison on bogus drug charges in Tulia was convicted Friday of one of two perjury counts, and may serve his sentence on probation.

Tom Coleman was acquitted of testifying falsely in a 2003 hearing that as a sheriff's deputy he never stole gas from county pumps, but he was found guilty of saying that he did not learn about the theft charge against him until August 1998.

Jurors deliberated his punishment for less than an hour before recommending probation. They sentenced him to seven years in prison, but because he didn't have any prior felony convictions decided that he could serve the time on probation.

The judge agreed and will rule Tuesday on the length and terms of the sentence.

Coleman shut his eyes and dropped his head when the judge spoke of the seven-year prison sentence. He started to fight back tears when hearing that jurors said he could serve it on probation.
(snip/...)

http://sundaygazettemail.com/section/APNews/News/ap0752n



Tom Coleman

[saigon68]

1. Nice Man

I hope he some day gets his ass kicked by one of his victims.

[ixion]

2. great, so 12 peoples lives are ruined

and this clown gets probation. Oh, he's a cowboy so I guess it's okay. :puke: :eyes:

[orthogonal]

3. A travesty

This clown should do as much time as all the people he falsely accused did.

Times three, as a deterrent.

I don't like to make assumptions about juries, but in this case, I really have to ask if the jury simply feels that it's not any big deal to lie so as to put black folk in jail for crimes they didn't commit.

[punpirate]

4. If you look at the specifics of the charges...

... neither of the two had anything directly to do with him falsely testifying against the 42-odd people arrested in Tulia.

Now, I'm always in favor of justice, even if a bit backhanded, but, in this case, the jury had only two charges that involved lying about petty theft from a government agency. Neither directly related to the real controversy.

I sincerely hope that this fellow does come up on charges that are directly related to the events in Tulia, and that justice prevails. If the charges were proved true, he deserves jail time.

[WhiteTara]

6. ABSOLUTELY These people are racists

first class.  Disgusting pork fat small minded bigots live in
Tulia. Coleman deserves to be placed in a cell with the people
he screwed.

[jmcgowanjm]

5. Karma's a bitch

And this guy islooking at it.

There's some BAD karma in Texas.

I was born there and I've felt just the feint breeze
of it.

Before 1924, the death penalty in Texas was enforced
locally. Due to embarrassment over publicly brutal lynchings
and a desire to legitimize and distinguish state-
sanctioned execution from lynching, Texas legislators voted
to conduct all executions in Huntsville, and to change the
method from hanging to electrocution. On February 8,
1924, when the state of Texas electrocuted its first five
prisoners, all five were black men. The
disproportionate execution of African Americans continues
in today's administration of the death penalty, in Texas
and across the nation. Nationally, blacks are represented
on death row at three-and-a-half times their proportion in
the whole population.

Ninety-two percent of the juveniles on death row in Texas
are African-American. The victim's race also influences
the state's decision. Half of the people murdered in the
United States are black, yet of those prosecuted for
capital murder and executed, less than 15 percent murdered
a black person. It is rare for a white person to get the
death penalty for killing an African American. In the U.S.
since 1976, when the death penalty was resumed in
many states, 142 black inmates have been executed for
killing white victims. In that same period, eleven whites
have been put to death for killing blacks. Until Bill
King's February death sentence, no white person in Texas
had ever received the death penalty for killing an
African American, with one exception. In 1854, a white man
killed the favorite slave of another white man and was
executed for what was essentially considered a property
crime.

http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=275