The Tarrant County District Attorney's Office wants the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to reverse the appeals court decision that overturned Crystal Mason’s illegal voting conviction.
Before her conviction was overturned, Mason was given a five-year sentence for casting a provisional ballot in 2016 while on supervised release for federal tax evasion.
Phil Sorrells, Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney, wrote in a statement released Thursday that the trial court's guilty verdict should be affirmed.
"Voting is a cornerstone of our democracy," he said. "This office will protect the ballot box from fraudsters who think our laws don't apply to them."
Last month the Second Court of Appeals in Tarrant County ruled that there was not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt Mason knew she was ineligible to vote while on supervised release.
Initially the Second Court of Appeals upheld her conviction. Two years ago the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals instructed the Second Court of Appeals to “evaluate the sufficiency” of the evidence against Mason, saying the lower court had “erred by failing to require proof that [Mason] had actual knowledge that it was a crime for her to vote while on supervised release.”
“It is disappointing that the state has chosen to request further review of Ms. Mason's case, but we are confident that justice will ultimately prevail,” read a statement from Tommy Buser-Clancy, one of Mason’s lawyers with the ACLU of Texas. “The court of appeals' decision was well reasoned and correct. It is time to give Ms. Mason peace with her family.”
In Texas, a person with a felony conviction can vote if they have finished the full term of their sentence which includes parole, probation, and supervision, according to the Texas State Law Library.
Mason was on federal supervised release, which is a preliminary period of freedom for those who served their full incarceration in federal prison.
However, she has maintained throughout the seven-year case that she did not know she was ineligible and would not have risked her freedom if she had.
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