In a case that has sparked outrage amongst voting rights activists for years, a Texas appeals court on Thursday overturned a decision and acquitted a woman who was sentenced to 5 years in prison for illegally casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election.
The decision was announced two years after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, ruled that a lower appellate court, the Second Court of Criminal Appeals, misinterpreted the illegal voting statute under which Crystal Mason was found guilty in 2018.
Ms. Mason, 49, of Fort Worth was charged with illegally voting in the 2016 general election by casting a provisional ballot while she was a felon on probation. This vote was never officially counted, and Mrs. Mason insisted that she didn’t know she was ineligible to vote, and followed the recommendation of an electoral commission employee who said she could forged her vote.
Ms Mason, who remained free on bail, appealed against the decision. In 2020, the Second Court of Appeals ruled that whether she knew she was ineligible to vote was “immaterial to the prosecution.”
However, in 2022, the Court of Criminal Appeals disagreed and asked the lower court to rehear the case. He said the prosecution needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Mason, who was on three years probation after serving a five-year sentence on a federal conspiracy charge, knew that her circumstances made her ineligible to vote.
In its decision to overturn her conviction and acquittal, the Second Court of Appeal found that the prosecution didn’t have sufficient evidence to prove that she knew.
A copy of the ruling was provided by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Texas Civil Rights Project.
“I have been drawn into this fight for voting rights and I will continue to hesitate so that no one else has to face what I have endured for over six years, a political stunt that attacks the voting rights of minorities,” she said. Mrs. Mason in a statement. statement on Thursday. “I cried and prayed every night for over six years straight that I would remain a free black woman.”
Thomas Buser-Clancy, an ACLU lawyer representing Ms. Mason, called her victory a victory for democracy.
“We are relieved for Ms. Mason, who has waited too long with the uncertainty that she will be imprisoned and separated from her family for five years just for trying to fulfill her civic duty,” he said.
The Tarrant County District Attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case against Ms. Mason, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Thursday evening.
Prosecutors argued that there was reason to consider Ms. Mason had read the provisional ballot, which outlines voter eligibility requirements, and subsequently knew she was committing a crime.
Ms. Mason’s conviction was a flashpoint for voting rights activists, who said her case highlighted racial disparities in the prosecution of voter fraud crimes and the complexity of voting laws for people convicted of crimes.
