No More Tulias: Drug Law Enforcement Evidentiary Standards Improvement Act of 2021

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 129 To increase the evidentiary standard required to convict a person for a drug offense, to require screening of law enforcement officers or others acting under color of law participating in drug task forces, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 4, 2021 Ms. JACKSON LEE introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To increase the evidentiary standard required to convict a person for a drug offense, to require screening of law enforcement officers or others acting under color of law participating in drug task forces, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘No More Tulias: Drug 4 Law Enforcement Evidentiary Standards Improvement 5 Act of 2021’’. 6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:10 Jan 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H129.IH H129 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 129 IH (1) In recent years it has become clear that 1 programs funded by the Edward Byrne Memorial 2 Justice Assistance Grant program (referred to in 3 this Act as the ‘‘Byrne grants program’’) have per- 4 petuated racial disparities, corruption in law enforce- 5 ment, and the commission of civil rights abuses 6 across the country. This is especially the case when 7 it comes to the program’s funding of hundreds of re- 8 gional antidrug task forces because the grants for 9 these antidrug task forces have been dispensed to 10 State governments with very little Federal oversight 11 and have been prone to misuse and corruption. 12 (2) Numerous Government Accountability Of- 13 fice reports have found that the Department of Jus- 14 tice has inadequately monitored grants provided 15 under the Byrne grants program. A 2001 General 16 Accounting Office report found that one-third of the 17 grants did not contain required monitoring plans. 18 Seventy percent of files on such grants did not con- 19 tain required progress reports. Forty-one percent of 20 such files did not contain financial reports covering 21 the full grant period. A 2002 report by the Heritage 22 Foundation reported that ‘‘there is virtually no evi- 23 dence’’ that the Byrne grants program has been suc- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:10 Jan 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H129.IH H129 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 129 IH cessful in reducing crime and that the program lacks 1 ‘‘adequate measures of performance’’. 2 (3) A 2002 report by the American Civil Lib- 3 erties Union of Texas identified 17 recent scandals 4 involving antidrug task forces in Texas that receive 5 funds under the Byrne grants program. Such scan- 6 dals include cases of the falsification of government 7 records, witness tampering, fabricating evidence, 8 false imprisonment, stealing drugs from evidence 9 lockers, selling drugs to children, large-scale racial 10 profiling, sexual harassment, and other abuses of of- 11 ficial capacity. Recent scandals in other States in- 12 clude the misuse of millions of dollars in Byrne 13 grants program money in Kentucky and Massachu- 14 setts, wrongful convictions based on police perjury in 15 Missouri, and negotiations with drug offenders to 16 drop or lower their charges in exchange for money 17 or vehicles in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massa- 18 chusetts, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin. 19 (4) The most well-known Byrne-funded task 20 force scandal occurred in Tulia, Texas, where dozens 21 of African-American residents (totaling over 16 per- 22 cent of the town’s African-American population) 23 were arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to decades 24 in prison, based solely on the uncorroborated testi- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:10 Jan 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H129.IH H129 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 129 IH mony of one undercover officer whose background 1 included past allegations of misconduct, sexual har- 2 assment, unpaid debts, and habitual use of a racial 3 epithet. The undercover officer was allowed to work 4 alone, and not required to provide audiotapes, video 5 surveillance, or eyewitnesses to corroborate his alle- 6 gations. Despite the lack of physical evidence or cor- 7 roboration, the charges were vigorously prosecuted. 8 After the first few trials resulted in convictions and 9 lengthy sentences, many defendants accepted plea 10 bargains. Suspicions regarding the legitimacy of the 11 charges eventually arose after two of the accused de- 12 fendants were able to produce convincing alibi evi- 13 dence to prove that they were out of State or at 14 work at the time of the alleged drug purchases. 15 Texas Governor Rick Perry eventually pardoned the 16 Tulia defendants (after four years of imprisonment), 17 but these kinds of scandals continue to plague Byrne 18 grant program spending. 19 (5) A case arose in a Federal court in Waco, 20 Texas, concerning the wrongful arrests of 28 African 21 Americans out of 4,500 other residents of Hearne, 22 Texas. In November 2000, these individuals were ar- 23 rested on charges of possession or distribution of 24 crack cocaine, and they subsequently filed a case 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:58 Jan 28, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H129.IH H129 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 129 IH against the county government. On May 11, 2005, 1 a magistrate judge found sufficient evidence that a 2 Byrne-funded antidrug task force had routinely tar- 3 geted African Americans to hold the county liable 4 for the harm suffered by the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs in 5 that lawsuit alleged that for the past 15 years, based 6 on the uncorroborated tales of informants, task force 7 members annually raided the African-American com- 8 munity in eastern Hearne to arrest the residents 9 identified by the confidential informants, resulting in 10 the arrest and prosecution of innocent citizens with- 11 out cause. On the eve of trial the counties involved 12 in the Hearne task force scandal settled the case, 13 agreeing to pay financial damages to the plaintiffs. 14 (6) Scandals related to the Byrne grants pro- 15 gram have grown so prolific that the Texas legisla- 16 ture has passed several reforms in response to them, 17 including outlawing racial profiling and changing 18 Texas law to prohibit drug offense convictions based 19 solely on the word of an undercover informant. The 20 Criminal Jurisprudence Committee of the Texas 21 House of Representatives issued a report in 2004 22 recommending that all of the State’s federally fund- 23 ed antidrug task forces be abolished because they 24 are inherently prone to corruption. The Committee 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:58 Jan 28, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H129.IH H129 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 129 IH reported, ‘‘Continuing to sanction task force oper- 1 ations as stand-alone law enforcement entities—with 2 widespread authority to operate at will across mul- 3 tiple jurisdictional lines—should not continue. The 4 current approach violates practically every sound 5 principle of police oversight and accountability appli- 6 cable to narcotics interdiction.’’ The Texas legisla- 7 ture passed a law that ends the ability of a narcotics 8 task force to operate as an entity with no clear ac- 9 countability. The legislation transfers authority for 10 multicounty drug task forces to the Department of 11 Public Safety and channels one-quarter of asset for- 12 feiture proceeds received by the task forces to a spe- 13 cial fund to support drug abuse prevention pro- 14 grams, drug treatment, and other programs de- 15 signed to reduce drug use in the county where the 16 assets are seized. 17 (7) Texas’s ‘‘corroboration’’ law was passed 18 thanks to a coalition of Christian conservatives and 19 civil rights activists. As one Texas preacher related, 20 requiring corroboration ‘‘puts a protective hedge 21 around the ninth commandment, ‘You shall not bear 22 false witness against your neighbor.’ As long as peo- 23 ple bear false witness against their neighbors, this 24 Biblical law will not be outdated.’’ 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:23 Jan 28, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H129.IH H129 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 129 IH (8) During floor debate, conservative Texas leg- 1 islators pointed out that Mosaic law requires cor- 2 roboration: ‘‘One witness shall not rise up against a 3 man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that 4 he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the 5 mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be estab- 6 lished.’’ Deuteronomy 19:15. Jesus concurred with 7 the corroboration rule: ‘‘If thy brother shall trespass 8 against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee 9 and him alone. . . . But if he will not hear thee, 10 then take with thee one or two more, that in the 11 mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be 12 established.’’ Matthew 18:15–16. 13 (9) Texas’s ‘‘corroboration’’ law had an imme- 14 diate positive impact. Once prosecutors needed more 15 than just the word of one person to convict someone 16 of a drug offense they began scrutinizing law en- 17 forcement tactics. This new scrutiny led to the un- 18 covering of massive corruption and civil rights abuse 19 by the Dallas police force. In what became known 20 nationally as the ‘‘Sheetrock’’ scandal, Dallas police 21 officers and undercover informants were found to 22 have set up dozens of innocent people, mostly Mexi- 23 can immigrants, by planting fake drugs on them 24 consisting of chalk-like material used in sheetrock 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:23 Jan 28, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H129.IH H129 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 129 IH and other brands of wallboard. The revelations led 1 to the dismissal of over 40 cases (although some of 2 those arrested were already deported). In April 3 2005, a former Dallas narcotics detective was sen- 4 tenced to five years in prison for his role in the 5 scheme. Charges against others are pending. 6 (10) Many regional antidrug task forces receive 7 up to 75 percent of their funding from the Byrne 8 grant program. As such, the United States Govern- 9 ment is accountable for corruption and civil rights 10 abuses inherent in their operation. 11 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con- 12 gress that— 13 (1) grants under the Byrne grants program 14 should be prohibited for States that do not exercise 15 effective control over antidrug task forces; 16 (2) at a minimum, no State that fails to pro- 17 hibit criminal convictions based solely on the testi- 18 mony of a law enforcement officer or informants 19 should receive a grant under such program; and 20 (3) corroborative evidence, such as video or 21 audio tapes, drugs, and money, should always be re- 22 quired for such criminal convictions to be sustained. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:23 Jan 28, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H129.IH H129 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 129 IH SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON RECEIPT OF BYRNE GRANT FUNDS 1 AND OTHER DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE LAW 2 ENFORCEMENT ASSISTANCE. 3 (a) LIMITATION.—For any fiscal year, a State shall 4 not receive any amount that would otherwise be allocated 5 to that State under section 505(a) of the Omnibus Crime 6 Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 7 10156(a)), or any amount from any other law enforcement 8 assistance program of the Department of Justice, unless 9 the State— 10 (1) does not fund any antidrug task forces for 11 that fiscal year; or 12 (2) has in effect throughout the State laws that 13 ensure— 14 (A) a person is not convicted of a drug of- 15 fense unless the fact that a drug offense was 16 committed, and the fact that the person com- 17 mitted that offense, are each supported by evi- 18 dence other than the eyewitness testimony of a 19 law enforcement officer or an individual acting 20 on behalf of a law enforcement officer; and 21 (B) a law enforcement officer does not par- 22 ticipate in an antidrug task force unless the 23 honesty and integrity of that officer is evalu- 24 ated and found to be at an appropriately high 25 level. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:10 Jan 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H129.IH H129 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 129 IH (b) REGULATIONS.—The Attorney General shall pre- 1 scribe regulations to carry out subsection (a). 2 (c) REALLOCATION.—Amounts not allocated by rea- 3 son of subsection (a) shall be reallocated to States not dis- 4 qualified by failure to comply with such subsection. 5 SEC. 4. COLLECTION OF DATA. 6 (a) IN GENERAL.—A State that receives Federal 7 funds pursuant to eligibility under section 3(a)(2), with 8 respect to a fiscal year, shall collect data, for the most 9 recent year for which funds were allocated to such State, 10 with respect to the— 11 (1) racial distribution of charges made during 12 that year; 13 (2) nature of the criminal law specified in the 14 charges made; and 15 (3) city or law enforcement jurisdiction in 16 which the charges were made. 17 (b) REPORT.—As a condition of receiving Federal 18 funds pursuant to section 3(a)(2), a State shall submit 19 to Congress the data collected under subsection (a) by not 20 later than the date that is 180 days prior to the date on 21 which such funds are awarded for a fiscal year. 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:10 Jan 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H129.IH H129 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS