“No matter how much money they bring, they aren’t going to bring back those years,” said Kizzie White, 27, who spent four years behind bars on the trumped-up charges, the Houston Chronicle reported March 12.

The agreement also calls for the disbanding of a federally financed 26-county narcotics task force, which was responsible for the arrests. The settlement was agreed to by the city of Amarillo, Texas, which had played a leading role in running the task force.

In July 1999 cops conducted pre-dawn raids on the homes of 46 individuals—39 of them Black—in Tulia, a town of 5,000. They were jailed on the basis of accusations by undercover cop Thomas Coleman that they had sold him cocaine over an 18-month period. Coleman had been employed by the state to conduct a sting for the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task Force.

No evidence was produced during any of the trials to corroborate Coleman’s testimony. After the first several of those convicted were given 60 to 90-year sentences, 27 others accepted plea agreements for lesser time. The defendants were given a total of 800 years in prison and 100 years on probation.

“The task force is ultimately culpable for what happed in Tulia,” said Vanita Gupta, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, according to the New York Times. The civil rights organization is one of the prominent national groups that joined in pursuing this case.

“They hired, supervised, and sponsored Tom Coleman’s activity in the 18 months he was operating there,” she said. “It’s not that Tom Coleman was simply a rogue officer. The problem is that federally funded narcotics task forces operate nationwide as rogue task forces.”

Coleman, who was named “Texas Lawman of the Year” in 1999 for his work in Tulia, is now facing perjury charges stemming from the drug sting operation. He goes on trial in May.

Last June the last 13 of the jailed defendants were released pending a ruling by the appeals court. In August, Texas governor Richard Perry granted pardons to 35 of the 46, who had spent a combined total of 80 years behind bars.  
 
 
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