Crystal Mason: Texas woman sentenced to five years over voting error acquitted

A Texas appeals court has thrown out a five-year prison sentence for Crystal Mason, a Texas woman who was sentenced for trying to cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election that was rejected.

Mason, now 49, attempted to vote in Fort Worth in the 2016 even though she was ineligible because she was still on supervised release – which is like probation – for a tax felony. She has always maintained she had no idea she was ineligible and only tried to cast a ballot because her mother urged her to.

A judge convicted her in a 2018 trial that lasted just a few hours.

werefreeatlast,

Thank God she didn’t try to buy the presidency.

some_guy,

Mason’s case became well known nationally and struck a chord as an example of an egregious punishment for a voting mistake. Many saw it as a thinly veiled effort to intimidate Black voters.

Ya think?!

Igloojoe,

Meanwhile… lemmy.world/post/13656660

Only $5000 fine

BigMacHole,

SILLY Woman! She should have just tried to Overthrow the United States Government! She would have gotten LESS time!

WhatAmLemmy,

The best part is that an employee of the state told her she could vote, therefore the state told her she could vote, and they imprisoned her anyway.

It’s basically entrapment.

grue,

The first vice chairman of the Georgia Republican party, Brian Pritchard, just got convicted of deliberately voting illegally nine times, and got sentenced to…

(…wait for it…)

…a $5000 fine.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

And those nine votes were still counted.

phoneymouse,

Glad they threw out her 5 year prison sentence from 2018 in 2024.

FlowVoid,

For nearly the entire time, she remained out of prison pending the outcome of her appeal.

seth,

So she only needs to sue for a farly partial time of duress and psychological trauma and loss of income from being imprisoned for a crime she didn’t commit.

FlowVoid,

Yes, she can sue. By law the most she can recover is slightly under $40,000, minus legal fees.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

And here I thought everything was bigger in Texas.

FlowVoid,

It is!

AFAICT, Texas has relatively generous laws for recovery of damages after wrongful imprisonment. In addition to the payout ($80K/yr, prorated), you get an annuity. In some cases you can even get free tuition at a state university. Whereas in most states, you can’t sue at all.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

$40,000 is not generous.

FlowVoid,

Hence my emphasis on “relatively”. That would be $25K in Michigan, and $0 in most states.

So technically, it is bigger in Texas.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

That is simply false.

mlive.com/…/michigan-man-awarded-17m-from-state-a…

FlowVoid, (edited )

The law is described incorrectly. They wrote (my emphasis):

The money was granted through the Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act, a state law passed in 2016 that grants a wrongfully convicted person $50,000 for each day that person was incarcerated.

But when you click on the link you find:

the court shall award compensation as follows: (a) Fifty thousand dollars for each year from the date the plaintiff was imprisoned until the date the plaintiff was released from prison, regardless of whether the plaintiff was released from imprisonment on parole or because the maximum sentence was served. For incarceration of less than a year in prison, this amount is prorated to 1/365 of $50,000.00 for every day the plaintiff

So by Michigan law he was entitled to $50K/yr, which is less than provided by Texas law ($80K/yr + other benefits).

And of course $50K/yr over 36 years is roughly the $1.75 million he received. If it were actually per day, he would have gotten over $600 million.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

($80K/yr + other benefits).

Originally you said:

By law the most she can recover is slightly under $40,000, minus legal fees.

So which is it?

FlowVoid,

She was incarcerated for a few months, not an entire year. The $80K/yr is prorated, so most likely she can get something under $40K.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

You certainly didn’t make that clear. And even for a few months of wrongful incarceration (along with the years of having to spend time in court), $40,000 is pitiful. Absolutely pitiful.

“They don’t pay as much in other states” doesn’t make it any less pitiful.

Would you find that to be adequate compensation for destroying five years of your life for doing something that wasn’t illegal?

ripcord,
@ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

Man, you just want to argue with anyone you can about anything you can, huh?

You’re being unreasonable, replying to their observing that despite this being awful, they’re somehow better than a bunch of other states.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I’m agreeing with them?

ripcord,
@ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

You certainly didn’t make that clear.

Or true.

FlowVoid,

I never said it was adequate.

I replied to the suggestions that it doesn’t matter because she already served her time (it actually does matter), that she should sue (she can but recovery is limited), and that everything is bigger in Texas (yes it is, relatively speaking).

Note that courts never compensate innocent people who are tied up in court, even for years. Compensation is only for people who are wrongfully incarcerated. Even in Texas.

octopus_ink, (edited )

So what? That’s six years of a major life problem she did not deserve. 40k is horseshit (if she’s even successful in getting it awarded), no matter how it may compare to options in other states.

And I’ll say it - I don’t believe for one second she’d have had this over her head all this time had she been a white registered Republican.

After Mason was arrested in 2017, she lost her job at a bank. She was also sent back to federal prison for several months for being arrested while on probation for a federal crime. During that time, she almost lost her home to foreclosure.

“Although I’ve cried for seven years straight, seven nights a week … I’ve also prayed for seven years straight, seven nights a week. Prayed that I would remain a free black woman,” she said in a statement.

jkrtn,

You are correct. There are multiple cases of white Repubs committing voting fraud with full mens rea and they get a slap on the wrist if anything.

FlowVoid,

I replied to the suggestion that overturning a five year sentence would be meaningless after six years. In this case it’s not meaningless at all.

octopus_ink,

Ah sorry, misdirected hostility over this effed up system.

fiat_lux,

I'm glad she has finally been acquitted but I am so sorry that she ever had to go through any of this

elbarto777,

Serves her right for being brown!!

(/s in case it’s not evident)

snooggums,
@snooggums@midwest.social avatar

Losing the right to vote is ridiculous.

prole,

Especially when prisoners are counted toward a state’s apportionment. Now you end up with evil conservative scumbags petitioning to have prisons in their states/districts so they get those extra resources, without all of those damn liberal votes.

TheRealKuni,

It’s essentially the modern equivalent of the 3/5ths compromise.

cmg,

www.npr.org/podcasts/…/deliberate-indifference

It’s definitely there because of the same politics.

jkrtn,

They aren’t even trying to hide it because you can legally use prisoners as slaves.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Agreed. Felons should be allowed to vote. Pirsoners should be allowed to vote. Just because you committed a crime doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be allowed to participate in a democratic election. There is, as far as I can remember, nothing in the Constitution that bars felons or the incarcerated from voting.

Not to mention that people in jail waiting for trial who can’t afford bail aren’t allowed to vote either if the election happens while they’re in jail, even though there’s been no conviction.

Wirrvogel,

In Germany there are only a few crimes that take away your voting rights and I am fine with these:

  • preparation of a war of aggression and high treason against the Federation
  • treason and disclosure of state secrets with intent to cause damage
  • attacks against organs and representatives of foreign states
  • disruption of election process and falsification of election documents
  • bribing delegates
  • sabotage against means of defence or intelligence activity endangering national security (provided that a sentence of imprisonment is imposed for at least one year in this case).

source

SkyezOpen,

disruption of election process and falsification of election documents

Seems like a good one. We should borrow that.

bribing delegates

I’ll have you know it’s called lobbying and it’s perfectly legal! For some reason.

FuglyDuck,
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

Iirc, she cast a provisional ballot, she wasn’t certain and asked whoever, in full openness.

If her vote was even counted, then it wasn’t her mistake.

minnow,

Never mind that the whole point of a provisional ballot is “I don’t know if this vote is valid, but here it is just in case it is valid”

I feel like casting a provisional ballot should protect you in cases like hers, not condemn you!

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

She asked and was told she was allowed to do so by an election official. I don’t know what else she was supposed to do.

Cethin,

She probably should have just tried being rich and/or white. It’s not that hard.

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