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ACLU attorney, hero of 'Tulia 38' discusses case at MSU |
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Thursday, 27 March 2008 |
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 Kelly Daniels/SDN ACLU attorney Vanita Gupta signs an autograph after a speech in Lee Hall auditorium on the Mississippi State campus about overturning 35 wrongful convictions in Tulia, Texas. By KELLY DANIELS
Starkville Daily News
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Vanita Gupta said she experienced racism as early as the age of 5 when she heard several skinheads shout "Go home, Pakis!" while she and her family were eating in a British restaurant.
The racist remarks were followed by throws of French fries until her family left the restaurant.
Whether or not this scene will be included in the upcoming Paramount Pictures release staring Halle Berry as Gupta, the 33-year-old attorney, who shared her story with Mississippi State students Monday evening, attributes it as part of her deeply imbedded motivation to see equality and fairness in justice systems throughout the United States.
And her first venture was perhaps her most recognized one.
On July 23, 1999, in the starkly populated Texas town, Tulia, 46 black people were arrested due alleged undercover operations by Tom Coleman, a man later to be revealed as a racist.
Tulia, a town of 5,000, had a black population of 350.
Gupta was fresh out of law school at New York University when she led the effort to overturn 38 convictions, to which only Coleman's testimony contributed.
"I had been aware of inequality in the justice system, but I was shocked that things like this still happened in 1999," said Gupta, who learned that Coleman had no physical evidence of his "undercover" findings.
"He had no tape recordings or video recordings."
According to Coleman, who had committed perjury at least seven times, a hog farmer was the drug king.
Though there was no substantial evidence to prove their guilt, many of the arrested people were advised to make plead guilty in order to better ensure shorter prison sentences.
Gupta, however, succeed in getting 35 of the convictions pardoned by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and later came out on top of a civil lawsuit, winning $6 million, which was distributed among the wrongfully convicted prisoners.
Coleman, whose character will be played by actor Billy Bob Thorton in the Hollywood film, saw reckoning when he was convicted of three felonies and was fired along with his supervisors.
Gupta's story led to a lesson in the rule of law.
"The rule of law does not by itself assure that we live in a just and democratic nation," she said.
"Laws only declare rights, they do not deliver them."
For example, she said, slavery did not end until 1865.
"For 178 our 231 years as an official nation, our segregation laws remained," she said.
"For 189 of our 231 years, our immigration laws remained, and for 143 of our 231 years gender equality remained established without a challenge."
Gupta attributes any meaning of her life to her struggles for the civil rights of people who don't have the same privileges she has.
"The need is just too great," she said.
"I firmly believe that a civilization should be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable people."
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Last Updated ( Friday, 28 March 2008 )
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