HOUSTON -- A racial joke that surfaced in an e-mail sent by District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal has some shaking their heads, KPRC Local 2 reported Wednesday.

"This is a slap in the face to us all, regardless of what color you are," former Precinct 7 Constable Perry Wooten said.

Wooten was prosecuted and convicted for theft of property by a public servant in 2003. He said he was railroaded by a racist criminal justice system and called his five-year sentence, handed down by an allwhite jury, a high-tech lynching.

Brian Wice, Wooten's attorney, said the racial content in Rosenthal's e-mails highlights a systemwide problem.

"Whether it means sending out racist e-mails or permitting your trial prosecutors to exclude blacks and Hispanics from trial juries merely because of their color -- it certainly underscores a systemic problem in this institution that nobody wanted to talk about," said Wice.

In addition to a racial joke about President Clinton that characterizes African-Americans as unemployed drug users, Rosenthal also e-mailed a picture showing a black man on the ground surrounded by fried chicken and watermelon. The caption read "fatal overdose."

Rosenthal said sending the e-mails was a mistake.

"In hindsight, I probably wouldn't have done it if I had any idea it would be public," Rosenthal said.

Regardless, Wooten said he believes the district attorney has mishandled his case and the cases of many other minorities. He is appealing his conviction and believes many more will consider doing the same.

"I think you have a lot of people wondering, wondering what happened in their case," Wooten said. "A lot of people that are in the jails now wondering what happened to their case and wondering if there's been selective prosecution."

Wice says Rosenthal's e-mails will not be used as evidence in the appeal.

Wooten's case will go before the United States Supreme Court's conference on Friday. Wice said he should know by Monday if the court will hear the appeal.