In a case that has prompted outrage from voting-rights activists for years, a Texas appeals court reversed itself on Thursday and acquitted a woman who had been sentenced to five years in prison for illegally casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election.
The decision came two years after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, ruled that the lower appeals court, the Second Court of Criminal Appeals, had misconstrued the illegal voting statute under which Crystal Mason was found guilty in 2018.
Ms. Mason, 49, of Fort Worth, had been charged with illegally voting in the 2016 general election by casting a provisional ballot while she was a felon on probation.
Ms. Mason, who has remained free on bond, appealed her conviction.
In 2020, the Second Court of Appeals ruled that whether or not she knew she was ineligible to vote was “irrelevant to the prosecution.”
Persons:
Crystal Mason, Mason, ”
Organizations:
Texas, Appeals
Locations:
Texas, Fort Worth