In a case that has sparked outrage from voting rights activists for years, a Texas appeals court docket on Thursday reversed and acquitted a lady who had been sentenced to 5 years in jail for voted illegally within the 2016 election.
The choice got here two years after the Texas Courtroom of Felony Appeals, the state's highest felony court docket, dominated that the Decrease Courtroom of Appeals, the Second Circuit Courtroom of Felony Appeals, had misinterpreted the unlawful voting standing that Crystal Mason was convicted of in 2018.
Ms. Mason, 49, of Fort Price, had been charged with illegally voting within the 2016 common election by provisional poll whereas a felon on probation. That vote was by no means formally counted, and Ms. Mason insisted she didn’t know she was ineligible to vote and had acted on the recommendation of a ballot employee who stated she may vote. .
Ms. Mason, who has been free on bond, has appealed her conviction. In 2020, the Second Courtroom of Appeals dominated that whether or not or not she knew she was ineligible to vote was “irrelevant for prosecution.”
However in 2022, the Courtroom of Felony Appeals disagreed and requested the decrease court docket to reevaluate the case. He stated the prosecution needed to show past an affordable doubt that Ms. Mason, who had been on three years' probation after serving a five-year sentence on a federal conspiracy cost, knew her circumstances made ineligible to vote.
In its determination to overturn his conviction and acquit him, the Second Courtroom of Attraction stated that the prosecution didn’t have sufficient proof to show that he knew.
A replica of the choice was supplied by the ACLU of Texas and the Texas Civil Rights Challenge.
“I used to be thrown into this struggle for voting rights and I’ll proceed to swing to guarantee that nobody has to face what I’ve endured for greater than six years, a political stratagem the place the voting rights of minorities are attacked,” the Ms. Mason stated in an announcement Thursday. “I cried and prayed each evening for greater than six years in a row to stay a free black girl.”
Thomas Buser-Clancy, an legal professional with the ACLU of Texas who represented Ms. Mason, referred to as her victory a victory for democracy.
“We’re relieved for Ms. Mason, who has waited far too lengthy with uncertainty about whether or not she could be imprisoned and separated from her household for 5 years simply to attempt to do her civic obligation,” he stated.
The Tarrant County District Legal professional's Workplace, which prosecuted the case towards Ms. Mason, couldn’t instantly be reached for remark late Thursday evening.
Prosecutors argued that there was cause to consider that Ms. Mason had learn the provisional poll, which explains voter eligibility necessities, and thus had recognized that she had dedicated against the law.
Ms. Mason's conviction was a flashpoint for voting rights activists, who stated her case underscored racial disparities within the prosecution of felony voter fraud instances, and the complexity of the voting legal guidelines for individuals who have been convicted of crimes.
