Crystal Mason: Texas woman sentenced to five years over voting error acquitted

[Nevilledog]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/28/crystal-mason-texas-woman-acquitted

No paywall link
https://archive.li/7DPCq

A Texas appeals court has thrown out a five-year prison sentence for Crystal Mason, a Texas woman who was sentenced for trying to cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election that was rejected.

Mason, now 49, attempted to vote in Fort Worth in the 2016 even though she was ineligible because she was still on supervised release – which is like probation – for a tax felony. She has always maintained she had no idea she was ineligible and only tried to cast a ballot because her mother urged her to.

A judge convicted her in a 2018 trial that lasted just a few hours.

Mason’s case became well known nationally and struck a chord as an example of an egregious punishment for a voting mistake.

In 2022, Texas’s highest criminal court told a lower appellate court it had to reconsider a ruling upholding Mason’s conviction. On Thursday, that court said there was not sufficient evidence Mason knew she was ineligible to vote.

“We conclude that the quantum of the evidence presented in this case is insufficient to support the conclusion that Mason actually realized that she voted knowing that she was ineligible to do so and, therefore, insufficient to support her conviction for illegal voting,” Justice Wade Birdwell wrote for the court in its Thursday ruling.

*the end*

[riversedge]

1. Why in the heck did it take EIGHT years to resolve this????

[FSogol]

3. Because the intent was to intimidate black voters. Even without putting her in jail, the intimidation worked

until now.

[FSogol]

2. K&R n/t

[iluvtennis]

4. Awesome news! n/t

[lindysalsagal]

5. I knew, before checking, this will be a woman of color. Yup.

2-tier justice system.

[dgauss]

6. "A trial that lasted just a few hours." For a misunderstanding. 5 years in prison.

Meanwhile, Trump...

[Orrex]

7. She's lucky that she didn't incite an insurrection, instead

Then she'd have faced some real trouble, that's for sure.

[angrychair]

10. I have always taken the position

That if Jan 6th was done by Black folk chanting "Black lives matter" the capitol would have been covered in bodies. Oh that I have no doubt.

[progressoid]

8. Now throw the judge that convicted her in jail.

But let's be lenient. How about just 2 years.

[catrose]

18. Not in the mood to be lenient

She wasn't sure. The poll worker did what I would have done, gave her a provisional ballot. No harm, no foul? The judge decided she was guilty, against the intent of the provisional ballot.

Her neighbor was also a poll worker. He knew she wasn't eligible to vote. He said nothing.

I hope several people what they deserve.

[LoisB]

9. Good.

[SunSeeker]

11. Sadly, 8 years of this hanging over her head caused the damage the GOP intended.

She spent 8 years in expensive litigation, her life was turned upside-down, and African American voters were intimidated.

[SergeStorms]

12. Better late than never, I guess.

It's a crying shame she had to be put through all of that in the first place.

Of course a woman of color is the GQP's favorite target. Gotta' put the fear into them. It's their raison d'etre, the rotten bastards. 😠

[LowerManhattanite]

13. I'll almost guarantee that that lizard-eyed f*cknozzle Ken Paxton...

…will try to find some secondary way to drag her back into court over this sh*t just to keep the rubes giddy with their snouts in the trough of f*ckery.

[Ford_Prefect]

14. This is good news. But Oh My, we have such a long way to go yet. They still hold most of the cards in Texas.

[DiverDave]

20. All the cards

And a few up their sleeves.
Wasn't she told by a poll worker, or her probation officer that she COULD vote?
It was a despicable act of racism.
Now she needs to sue EVERYONE involved.
Of course, texas, so no one will pay.

[summer_in_TX]

15. She was shamefully treated by Texas GOP officials, but I'm so thankful she was finally acquitted!

I hope to hear much more about how she is doing and that she will receive some kind of restitution. Also, I hope she will be fighting mad about it, and help motivate people of all races and ethnicities to vote. Texas traditionally is a low-turnout state.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

16. Thank goodness!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

17. This is great news

[MagickMuffin]

19. Justice for Crystal at long last long overdue, I just mentioned her today

On another thread about a gop leader voting several times and is receiving a 11 month sentence.

I’m glad Crystal has finally gotten Justice and hopefully her voting rights restored.

[lostnfound]

21. Meanwhile poor Brian Pritchard in georgia has to pay $5400 for illegal voting as a felon

The conservative radio talk show host / VP Chair of the Georgia Republican Party. Voted 9 times while on probation for felony.
Not much of a fight, did not take 8 years..
He remains an election denying believer in his own heroism kind of guy.