Free Republic

Los Angeles, CA (AHN) - Billy Bob Thornton is re-teaming with his one time co-star Halle Berry for a new movie. The actor, who starred with Berry in "Monster's Ball," has signed on for Lionsgate's "Tulia." The crime-drama is centered on an ACLU attorney who tries to reveal the corruption surrounding drug convictions in Tulia, Texas, in 1999. Karen Croner has written the screenplay, with a rewrite by Carl Franklin, the director. The film is also based on an adaptation of a book by Nate Blakeslee titled "Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town." Adam Rosenfelt, Jesse...

Jackson County's DA Has Convicted 28 Black People on Drug Charges Via Manufactured Evidence and Railroaded Trials. Now a Small-Town Exile, Her Family, and a Few Neighbors Are Fighting Back Frederick "Rick" Patterson was born in the small Southeast Texas city of Edna, seat of Jackson Co. and just north of Port Lavaca, in 1954, the same year the rural community earned its first moment in the national spotlight. That January, the U.S. Supreme Court heard an appeal brought by convicted murderer Pete Hernandez, an agricultural worker in Edna, who argued that Jackson Co. prosecutors denied his right to equal...

At a press conference and Congressional briefing on Wednesday, May 25th, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) will introduce federal legislation that could cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in federal law enforcement grants to local anti-drug task forces. The legislation, which is being co-sponsored by Representatives John Conyers (D-MI), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Donald Payne (D-NJ), and Ed Towns (D-NY), would prohibit states from spending federal Byrne grants on regional narcotics task forces unless they adopt laws preventing people from being convicted of drug offenses when the only evidence against them is the uncorroborated testimony of a law enforcement officer...

Tulia suit settled for $5 million Drug bust defendants hail step toward justice BY GREG CUNNINGHAM MORRIS NEWS SERVICE AMARILLO — The road spanned five years and countless miles, but the 46 people arrested in the controversial 1999 Tulia drug sting took a major step Thursday toward the end of their journey. The news that the city of Amarillo would settle with the Tulia defendants for $5 million and the dissolution of the task force that conducted the sting was met with a combination of joy and introspection by people finally nearing their objective — justice. "I'm feeling great," said...

Governor seeks review of Tulia drug convictions BY JOHN REYNOLDS AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Gov. Rick Perry stepped into the controversy swirling around a 1999 drug bust in Tulia by asking the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday to review the convictions of 38 people. In a letter to board chairman Gerald Garrett, Perry wrote, "I urge you to begin an expeditious investigation into each of these cases and recommend whether a pardon, commutation of sentence or other clemency action is appropriate and just." Thirteen people remain in prison, serving sentences as long as 90 years. Although the board can recommend...

The undercover officer who ran a controversial drug investigation in Tulia four years ago was indicted Thursday on charges of lying under oath during recent hearings to determine if the convictions he obtained were legitimate. A three-count indictment handed up by a Swisher County grand jury accuses Tom Coleman, 43, of making false statements about legal problems he faced in another county while working for the Panhandle Drug Task Force. "These were the three strongest cases," said Rod Hobson, a Lubbock attorney who is working as a special prosecutor on the Tulia investigation. Coleman could not be reached for comment....