Progressive Democrat defeats 11 year incumbent Republican DA

[tulipsandroses]

Last edited Fri Aug 5, 2022, 03:46 PM - Edit history (2)

Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich Loses Re-election Bid Months After Aggressively Prosecuting Pamela Moses For Alleged Voter Fraud

The Tennessee prosecutor who went after Pamela Moses for alleged voter fraud lost her race Thursday night. Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich was unseated by a progressive challenger Steve Mulroy.
Mulroy had 56.13 percent of the vote, beating Weirich by over 15,000 votes. She has held the seat since 2011. Local community and national progressive groups wanted Weirich gone and found a challenger in Mulroy.

SNIP———
Weirich’s defeat comes almost six months after Moses was granted a new trial and close to four months after she declined to recharge the voting rights advocate. Moses was granted a new trial after evidence came to light that the prosecution had previously withheld, showing the probation department’s internal review of the signing of the voting restoration certificate.

Weirich insisted on prosecuting Moses despite an email outlining the probation department’s error and wrong information given. As previously reported by Bolts, Weirich became a symbol of malicious prosecution for going after Moses over a probation officer’s mistake.

Despite Moses’ sincere belief that she was eligible to vote and the complicated rules around rights restoration, Weirich pursued an aggressive prosecution to bolster conservative claims of voter fraud.

https://newsone.com/4385665/shelby-county-prosecutor-amy-weirich-loses-re-election-bid-pamela-moses/

[SheltieLover]

1. Dems had BIG wins in Memphis yesterday!

[ShazzieB]

2. COOL!

That is GREAT news!

[SheltieLover]

7. Sure is!

Thd demographics here are ~66% Black, but I'm told they don't necessarily trust the system enough to vote.

So sad to see such a powerful voting block be so apathetic, and equally exhilirating to see it come to life!

[Demovictory9]

23. Excellent..

[tulipsandroses]

3. We need to sustain this, I am encouraged by what I am seeing with wins in local races

We need to challenge everything from school boards, local state houses, sheriffs. You name it. I think we’ve done great at GOTV for big elections but we have to do the same at the local level. We have ceded those races to republicans for too long by not competing. We have to see every race as important.

[wryter2000]

9. This is so important

We've been so lax about local and state elections, and that has caused huge problems.

[calimary]

12. Yeah. No shit! The opposition has had this angle all to themselves for FAR too long!

FAR too long!

Thank goodness our side is FINALLY wising up about NOT neglecting state & local races! Sure took ‘em long enough.

I remember going to a meeting of Democrats and one of the group leaders told me “we’re good cussed on the presidential race.” I think it was during one of the Clinton cycles, but I forget which one. I’d asked her about some statewide race and that’s the answer I got. I started worrying about - “okay so we get the White House. But what good is it when we don’t have anything else?” After all, if the other side gets everything else THEY’LL be the ones who run things and make stuff happen (meaning THEIR stuff). And all we’ll have is the veto pen.

Yes. Prevents damage. But nothing can actually move forward! We need to be ACTIVE, not just reactive.

[Tommymac]

20. Run For Something

Absolutely correct. I am a recurring donor to 'Run For Something' - a group that encourages and supports young, progressives in down ballot races. Check it out. (They were featured on MSNBC a year or two ago).

https://runforsomething.net/

Run for Something will recruit and support young, diverse progressives to run for down-ballot races in order to build sustainable power for Democrats in all 50 states.

TBH,  the folks we support now could be possible members of the House, Senate, a governor, and maybe even President one day. We aim to lower the barriers to entry for these candidates by helping them with behind-the-scenes mechanics, tactical and strategic support, advice, mentorship, access to training, and everything in between.

In our efforts to create a party that reflects the changing face of our electorate, we decided to focus on every candidate who wanted to run for a down-ballot seat, not just candidates who meet the standard “viability” test, aka how much money they’ve raised. We know that type of prioritization wouldn’t allow us to embody our core values.

We also decided that by investing in every candidate and giving each one the tools they need to run a great campaign, we would also empower voters to go out and have their voices heard. Simply put, we trust voters. Local election stakes are tangible, the candidates are relatable, and the issues are personal. We believe the voters should decide who the right candidate is to represent them — not an institution.

[Indykatie]

4. Thank Goodness This Over Zealous Witch Lost!!!

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Excellent!

Pamela Moses was sentenced to 6 years in prison for trying to vote after a fucking error by the government, while you had a gun-toting insurrectionist loon, turned in by his children, recently senteneced to 7 years - currently the longest sentence of those charged and convicted for their savage activities.

[soldierant]

8. Apples nd oranges.

One was in a state court and the other in a federal court. I agree that one is too nucg=h abd the other too little, but it's not really fair to fault a judge for the sentiencing guidelines under which the cse falls - nor for disparity in persuasiveness of the prosecutor (the zeal may also not be equal, but I think both prosecutor had some.)

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Not "apples and oranges" because this points to the core of the need for "criminal justice reform"

and sentencing, which especially impacts POC far more than anyone else.

This is Pamela Moses -



And this is the fucking loon Reffitt -

[soldierant]

21. Yes, I know who she is.

And it's still apples and oranges. Criminal justice reform, if done, and it certainly needs to be, must be dome stse by state and separately by the Federal government.

Or by a Constitutional amendlent eliminating all state criminal codes and superseding them with the Federal criminal code. Which means criminalizing a lot of stuff federally which now let to the states. Things like murder and robbery.

Good luck with that.

[BumRushDaShow]

22. The point is

that when it comes to ranges of sentencing, leniency is given to the Reffitts and not the Moses. It's doesn't matter which court system - federal, state, county, or municipal. The nightmare of places like Ferguson, MO, where POC were purposely targeted, hunted, and put into a purgatory of criminalization perpetuated by their criminal justice system, offers the perfect example -

Ferguson Police Routinely Violate Rights of Blacks, Justice Dept. Finds


By Matt Apuzzo

March 3, 2015

WASHINGTON — Ferguson, Mo., is a third white, but the crime statistics compiled in the city over the past two years seemed to suggest that only black people were breaking the law. They accounted for 85 percent of traffic stops, 90 percent of tickets and 93 percent of arrests. In cases like jaywalking, which often hinge on police discretion, blacks accounted for 95 percent of all arrests.

The racial disparity in those statistics was so stark that the Justice Department has concluded in a report scheduled for release on Wednesday that there was only one explanation: The Ferguson Police Department was routinely violating the constitutional rights of its black residents.

The report, based on a six-month investigation, provides a glimpse into the roots of the racial tensions that boiled over in Ferguson last summer after a black teenager, Michael Brown, was fatally shot by a white police officer, making it a worldwide flash point in the debate over race and policing in America. It describes a city where the police used force almost exclusively on blacks and regularly stopped people without probable cause. Racial bias is so ingrained, the report said, that Ferguson officials circulated racist jokes on their government email accounts.

In a November 2008 email, a city official said Barack Obama would not be president long because “what black man holds a steady job for four years?” Another email included a cartoon depicting African-Americans as monkeys. A third described black women having abortions as a way to curb crime.

(snip)

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/04/us/justice-department-finds-pattern-of-police-bias-and-excessive-force-in-ferguson.html

This is why the hell there are organizations like The Sentencing Project that exist to track and fight this.

The tepid response to the January 6 insurrectionists is another perfect example when compared to the response against BLM protestors.

Obfuscating with a hyperbolic suggestion about "eliminating all state criminal codes" is just ludicrous and nonsense. The problems are often not the code but the DISPARATE APPLICATION OF IT, from start to finish, and this is why municipality after municipality are finally engaging in reform including voting to remove the problem people who perpetuate this bullshit.

Ferguson, MO finally began to do it 8 years ago by engaging their residents and pushing for them to become more active in the governance of their municipality, including taking back control by excising the ilk that became entrenched there.

Shelby County, TN residents are now doing the same.

The OP is about such a removal of such a problem and replacement with someone who will hopefully help to turn the page. It will not happen overnight and it will be difficult to buck the entrenched cancer that is racism in policing and sentencing, as we have found here in Philly with our own progressive D.A., who all the racist fucks in the FOP and state GOP loon fringe, love to hate (the latter even now gearing up in the state legislature to try to impeach him), but it has to be done.

[tulipsandroses]

10. Unbelievable isn't it?? There were trump voters that deliberately

committed voter fraud. I don’t believe any of them have gotten jail time.

[calimary]

15. Well, no wonder they're making such a stink about it!

This is just another example of a favorite GOP strategy: Accuse-the-Dems-of-Doing-what YOU-ACTUALLY-ARE-doing!

[deurbano]

14. The judge (Mark Ward) lost, too.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. Thank you for that news too

Sometimes one wonders if anyone is paying enough attention and is even willing to bring about a change.

(now if they can only get rid of Marsha Blackburn when she comes up for re-election )

[YoshidaYui]

6. maybe people are waking up

to the fact that the Republican party is not a Democratic Party but an Autocratic party.

[slumcamper]

11. Prosecutorial abuse. There's a LOT of that happening.

Yet another example of how our civil war is being waged in the institutional sphere at present.

Individuals exercising authority over civic matters--and who do so with clear, ill intent--must be challenged.

Such partisans are a blight on our higher principles and a scourge on our institutions and system of governance. Of course they want to break government; at best, they want to leverage it to "own" those on the side of liberal democracy who they disagree with.

[bucolic_frolic]

16. Nothing breeds success like success

Keep this engine going and people will believe they can eject these monsters which will lead to bigger turnout and more ejections.

[progressoid]

18. BIG K/R

[cstanleytech]

19. So, why does Weirich still have a license to practice law?

[Demovictory9]

24. Glad Amy W will be in the unemployment line

[Ruby the Liberal]

25. Well done, Memphis

[Roc2020]

26. Overzealous prosecution of alleged voter fraud

then voters voted you out Yah. That's how it works.

[867-5309.]

27. But progressives can't win

particularly in the south!