Provided by ACLU
Crystal Mason (center) is a mother of three children.
CNN
—
A Texas mother sentenced to five years in prison for voting illegally in the 2016 election said she was “overjoyed” to have her conviction vacated by the Texas Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday.
Crystal Mason, a Black mother of three, was serving a sentence for tax evasion and on supervised release when she filled out a provisional ballot in the 2016 election. She said that upon her release she did not know that her status as a felon would disqualify her from voting.
“After considering the critical issue on remand, namely, whether the evidence was sufficient to support Crystal Mason's conviction for illegal voting under the Texas Election Code, we agree with the trial court's decision. , and enter a judgment acquitting her,'' the court said in its opinion. .
Mason celebrated the court's decision, which he had been waiting for since appealing his five-year sentence in 2019.
“I am so happy that my faith was rewarded today,” Mason said in a statement shared by the ACLU of Texas. “I was thrown into this fight over voting rights, but I wanted to make sure that others didn't face what I have endured for more than six years: the political machinations in which the voting rights of minorities are under attack. I have cried and prayed every night for over six years that I would continue to be a free black woman.”
After Mason was convicted, voting rights activists compared her case to other voter fraud convictions involving white defendants who received more lenient sentences.
The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney's Office told CNN in 2019 that it should have been clear that Mason was ineligible to vote, citing a letter sent to his home after his conviction and a warning written on his provisional ballot. He said it was.
Mason told CNN that a letter was sent to his home while he was incarcerated, but he never received it. Her only other notice was a warning written on the side of the ballot she filled out in 2016, but she was so focused on filling out other information on the form that she She said she didn't notice.
The court held that the evidence presented in the case was “insufficient to support a conclusion that Mason was actually aware that he was voting knowingly that he was ineligible to vote, and therefore guilty of illegal voting.” “This is insufficient to support the verdict.”
“Ultimately, the state's main evidence was that Mason had read the statements in the affidavit. But even if she had read them — in light of the rest of the evidence in this case. However, it is not sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she actually knew that she had completed her full federal service and was on supervised release. are no longer eligible to vote when casting a provisional ballot,” the court said in its opinion.
CNN has reached out to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney's Office.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which helped represent Mason, called the decision a victory.
“The court's move to vacate the conviction is an unintentional mistake made in an attempt to fulfill a civic duty and, at worst, should not result in a conviction or prison sentence,” the ACLU said in a statement. It shows that.”
“Crystal Mason has bravely fought against this gross injustice for years. No one should be forced to endure what she is going through, and Crystal's victory today is an inspiration. and a cause for celebration,” said Sophia Lynn Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project.
