Texas court orders that illegal voting conviction against Crystal Mason be reviewed

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Crystol Mason was convicted because republicans do not want non-white people voting. She got a five year sentence when white defendants who really broke the law are all getting probation because they are white and republican

Link to tweet

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/11/1098318580/texas-court-orders-that-illegal-voting-conviction-against-crystal-mason-be-revie?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Texas' highest criminal court on Wednesday ordered that a lower court take another look at the controversial case against Crystal Mason, a Texas woman who was convicted of voting illegally during the 2016 election.

At the time Mason voted, she was on supervised release from prison after serving time on federal tax evasion charges.

Alison Grinter Allen, Mason's attorney, has said Mason had no idea she couldn't vote because she technically hadn't finished her sentence. Mason wasn't on the voter rolls at the time, so she voted using a provisional ballot — which eventually wasn't counted.

But in 2018, Mason was convicted of illegal voting, which was a second-degree felony at the time, and was sentenced to five years of confinement. She's currently out on bond.

According to the ruling Wednesday from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, when a lower court upheld that conviction, it made a mistake by "failing to require proof that [Mason] had actual knowledge that it was a crime for her to vote while on supervised release."

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. This was the testimony from the probation officer during Mason's trial

Link to tweet

[riversedge]

3. I, for one, do not think it is 'common knowedge"

[RussBLib]

2. at least she is out on bond

while my state slides further into GOP hell. If there is any justice left, Mason will walk free.

[MontanaMama]

4. I feel your pain

as my state is also sliding further into GOP hell. It is so depressing and discouraging.

[gratuitous]

5. Well that's a switch

Usually it's well-connected white guys for whom the criminal standard is whether they knew they were breaking the law when they defrauded their customers or marketed a lethally defective product or committed some other dastardly act that just coincidentally put more money in their pockets.

From what I've read of Mason's case, she was conscientious about inquiring about her eligibility to vote, and cast her ballot provisionally because she couldn't get a straight answer out of the various authorities. And for that, a Texas judge decided she had to go to prison for five years. Maybe if she'd worn a Q-Anon shaman get-up and took a shit on Gov. Abbott's office floor she would have gotten a lighter sentence.