FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – Prosecutors in Texas asked the state’s highest court of criminal appeals Thursday to overturn a ruling that overturned a Fort Worth woman’s voter fraud conviction and five-year prison sentence for casting an illegal provisional ballot .

Last month, the Second Court of Appeals overturned Crystal Mason’s illegal voting conviction. Now the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office is asking the Texas Court of Appeals to overturn that ruling.

Mason was convicted in 2018, illegal voting in the district court. Prosecutors argued that Mason read and signed an affidavit included with the provisional ballot acknowledging that she had “fully served” her sentence if convicted of a crime.

However, the Second Court of Appeal ruled that even when she had read the words in the statement, she may not have known that being on probation for a previous felony conviction disqualified her from voting in 2016.

Tommy Buser-Clancy, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas who was considered one of Mason’s representatives in the case, said in a statement that the request for further review of Mason’s case was “disappointing” but they were “confident” that justice would ultimately prevail “

In this April 2018 photo, Crystal Mason speaks to the media in downtown Dallas. (Photo by Andy Jacobsohn/The Dallas Morning News via AP)

“The decision of the court of appeal was well-reasoned and correct. It is time to bring peace to Ms. Mason and her family,” Buser-Clancy said.

The ACLU of Texas reported that Mason didn’t give interviews on Thursday.

Mason, a former tax preparer, was convicted in 2012 on charges related to inflating refunds to clients and served almost three years of a five-year prison sentence. She was then placed on three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $4.2 million in restitution, based on court documents.

Mason’s lengthy sentence alarmed state legislators, Republicans and Democrats alike. In 2021, after passing latest voting laws despite Democratic opposition, the GOP-controlled state House passed a resolution stating that “a person should not be subject to imprisonment for making an innocent mistake.”

Texas is considered one of dozens of states that prevent felons from voting even after they’re released from prison.

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com

The post Prosecutors want the verdict overturned after a Texas woman’s voter fraud conviction was overturned first appeared on 360WISE MEDIA.

The post Prosecutors want the verdict overturned after a Texas woman’s voter fraud conviction was overturned appeared first on 360WISE MEDIA.