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

News@lemmy.world – 396 points – 3 months ago

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Ah sorry, misdirected hostility over this effed up system.

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.

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

And here I thought everything was bigger in Texas.

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.

$40,000 is not generous.

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

So technically, it is bigger in Texas.

That is simply false.

https://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/2024/01/michigan-man-awarded-17m-from-state-after-spending-36-years-in-prison-for-crime-he-didnt-commit.html

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.

($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?

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.

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?

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