This from today's Amarillo Globe-News regarding the release of the sundry Tulia defendants:

"Jeff Blackburn, the Amarillo attorney who has led the legal fight against the bust, said all the attorneys involved will continue to fight until everyone jailed on Coleman's word is freed.

"Despite the work remaining, Blackburn took a moment to savor a victory and get in a jab against the judicial system he has fought for three years.

"'This is the most wonderful thing that's happened in this place,' Blackburn said from outside the courthouse. 'I'm surprised the courthouse hasn't crumbled from the weight of this much justice, which I'm sure it's never seen before.'"

On behalf of myself and, I suspect, many other members of the Amarillo bar, I would like to take this opportunity to humbly apologize on behalf of my home city for this cargo of cheese. I promise that most of us would rather eat our own big toes than have this caliber of goofy self-righteous tripe attributed to us.

Thanks, Scott. I am getting pretty worn down on all this...how long can this horse continue to run? I read in the paper this morning some outraged editor ranting about how these people were convicted on the testimony of a bad cop, and there was never any drugs or money other other evidence. This is shameful. who is this attorney, anyhow?

Mr. Blackburn is the guy whose face seems to be ubiquitously plastered on our TV screens anytime a legal question arises (whether he knows the actual answer to the issue at hand is, of course, irrelevant). He is a self-proclaimed "civil rights lawyer," although I find it a bit strange that, given the heavy component of civil rights defense within my practice, I've not had the honor of squaring off against Jeff in federal court or a state civil suit. In any event, I am in accord with the comments within the thread concerning the Dallas Morning News editorial (which somehow segued Tulia, Dallas and the HPD crime lab into a tantrum about the egregious prejudice suffered by criminal defendants because of delay in getting to trial) over in the criminal forum.