On Thursday, an appeals court in Texas overturned the conviction and the egregiously absurd five-year sentence handed to a Black woman for a crime she arguably should never have been charged with in the first place.
According to the Texas Tribune, the Tarrant County-based Second Court of Appeals formally acquitted Crystal Mason, who was charged with a felony for casting a provisional ballot in 2016 while on supervised release for a federal conviction, which she didn’t know made her ineligible to vote.
“I am overjoyed to see my faith rewarded today,” Mason said in a statement. “I was thrown into this fight for voting rights and will keep swinging to ensure no one else has to face what I’ve endured for over six years, a political ploy where minority voting rights are under attack.”
“I’ve cried and prayed every night for over six years straight that I would remain a free Black woman,” she continued. “I thank everyone whose dedication and support carried me through this time and look forward to celebrating this moment with my family and friends.”
Mason, who has had her life upended for seven years behind this case, has always maintained that she was unaware she wasn’t eligible to vote, and, when it comes down to it, there was never a reason to believe she did. In fact, the court said in its decision that no evidence had ever been presented that proved she knowingly tried to vote illegally, “which is a condition that must be met in order to convict her of illegal voting,” the Tribune noted.
Despite the lack of evidence, Mason is only being cleared of all wrongdoing after the so-called justice system worked damn hard to treat a Black woman’s life like it doesn’t really matter by taking away her freedom for a frivolous reason.
From the Tribune:
The Second Court of Appeals initially upheld her conviction but two years ago was instructed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to “evaluate the sufficiency”…
Read the full article here
