SB515 treats the testimony of an u/c officer the same as that of a criminal accomplice. It would require corroboration of the u/c officer's testimony before a drug dealer could be convicted. A crook with a prior for Agg. Perjury would, in the eyes of the law, have more weight than the testimony of an u/c officer.

Thus, if an u/c officer's wire wasn't working, or only picked up scattered parts of the conversation (which seems to be the case 95% of the time)or if he's approached to buy drugs and his wire isn't on, or if he's dealing with a dealer who checks for wires and thus can't wear one--no conviction. This proposed statute will make undercover drug operations extremely difficult to do. And the higher up the chain the dealer is, the more unlikely we will be able to successfully prosecute.

This bill will be heard before the Senate Criminal Justice Committee this Tues. 3/18/03 starting at 1 p.m. We need a lot of people to come out and oppose this awful bill. If you can't get to Austin to testify against it, call or e-mail some of the committee members and your own Senator.

Who are, Juan "Chuey" Hinojosa: juan.hinojosa@senate.state.tx.us,

and Royce West:
royce.west@senate.state.tx.us