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Texas Review Appeal Of Black Womans' 5yrs Who Unknowingly Voted Illegally
Unbelievable! TX Court, Who Normally Support Trump, To Review Appeal Of Black Woman Facing 5yrs Who Unknowingly Voted Illegally
Texas to reconsider case AGAIN of Black woman sentenced to five years for trying to vote for Biden.. Move is latest step in case of Crystal Mason that has captured US attention because of severity of sentence
Trump Says He Has Enough Votes: Focus Now 'Make Sure They Don't Cheat'
The Guardian 22 AUG 2024
Crystal Mason holds her grandson, Karter Hobbs, 3, in Fort Worth, Texas, on 29 March 2024.
Texas’s highest criminal court announced on Wednesday it would again consider the case of Crystal Mason, a Texas woman who was sentenced to five years in prison for trying to cast a provisional ballot for Biden in the 2016 presidential election when she was ineligible to vote.
The announcement from the Texas court of criminal appeals is the latest step in a nearly eight-year case that has captured national attention because of the severity of Mason’s sentence. Mason, who lives in Fort Worth, attempted to vote in 2016 while on supervised release – which is like probation – for a federal tax felony. Texas, like several other US states, bars people convicted of a felony from voting until they have completed their sentence.
Even though her supervised release officer testified they never advised her she could not vote, prosecutors argue she knew she was ineligible and tried to vote anyway. Her ballot was never counted.
Many voting rights groups see the prosecution of Mason, who is Black, as a clear example of voter intimidation, and have pointed to other white defendants who have received lesser punishment for knowingly committing election crimes. Mason has always maintained she did not know she was ineligible.
It will be the second time the case comes before the court. In 2022, it ordered a lower court to revisit a decision upholding the sentence. The lower court did so and threw out Mason’s conviction in March. While some of Mason’s lawyers expected that would be the end of the case, Phil Sorrells, the local district attorney, decided to appeal the decision.
“While I am ready for this case to be over and for my acquittal to stand, I will continue to maintain my faith that justice will be done,” Mason said in a statement.
Mason showed up to cast a ballot in 2016 at the urging of her mother, who regularly reminded her children and grandchildren to vote. When poll workers couldn’t find her name on the list of registered voters, they offered her a provisional ballot.
Provisional ballots are a special kind of ballot required under federal law if there is uncertainty about someone’s eligibility and only get counted if they are later confirmed to be eligible to vote.
The entire case hinges on whether Mason read and understood an affidavit she signed on the envelope accompanying the provisional ballot swearing that she was an eligible voter. Part of the affidavit asks the voter to swear that if they are a convicted felon they have completed their sentence entirely.
Mason has always maintained that she did not read the affidavit and would not have voted if she understood she was ineligible to vote.
In March, the second court of appeals said that prosecutors had not presented sufficient evidence to prove Mason “actually realized” she was ineligible to vote.
Sorrells disputed that in his appeal to the court of criminal appeals, writing that there was sufficient evidence Mason understood the affidavit.
“The appellate court erroneously interpreted ambiguous testimony in the defense’s favor, credited evidence that the trial court was free to disregard, reweighed evidence in a manner favoring the defense, and disregarded evidence that supported the trial court’s findings, all at odds with the binding precedent of this court,” lawyers for his office wrote.
Sorrells has also defended the decision to appeal the case. “I want would-be illegal voters to know that we’re watching,” Sorrells said in May. “And that we’ll follow the law and we will prosecute illegal voting.”
The Texas court of criminal appeals, who normally support Trump, said it would decide the case without oral argument. It did not immediately set a schedule for the parties to submit briefs, so a timeline for a resolution was not immediately clear.
“We have faith that the court will uphold Crystal’s acquittal and all Texans will see a day when they can feel confident in the franchise and go to the polls unafraid that they could face prison time for any mistake or misunderstanding,” Alison Grinter Allen, one of Mason’s attorneys, said in a statement.
Trump Says He Has Enough Votes For 2024 -How Does HE Know??
TRUMP told voters in North Carolina on Wednesday that getting people out to vote isn't his campaign's main goal this year — a message he shared despite the election being just 76 days away.
“Our primary focus is not to get out the vote — it's to make sure they don’t cheat," Trump said. "We have all the votes we need, you can see it, every house along the way has signs, Trump, Trump, Trump."
He didn't explain what he meant, and it's unclear where Trump is getting the information that he already has enough votes months before the election
'HE Disgusts Me to My Core': Ex-Trump Supporters Explained They’re Now All in For Harris
Trump Press Secretary Says Trump Has "No Empathy, No Morals" & "Mocks His Own Supporters"
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AMERICA WAS ONCE AN INNOVATED & RESPECTED COUNTRY and THEN ALONG CAME TRUMP.....
That buzz you hear is George Washington spinning in his grave
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