End of a Travesty

The governor of Texas is preparing to sign a bill that would free the so-called "Tulia 14." The town of Tulia made national headlines in the wake of a 1999 "drug bust" carried out by truth-challenged cop Tom Coleman. Coleman had apparently decided that all black people are drug dealers, arresting almost half of the town's adult African American population in one fell swoop. Despite the surprising absence of drugs, cash, or firearms turned up in the busts, mostly-white juries sent 19 people to state prisons, 14 of whom remain… for another two weeks.