Bipartisan prosecutors call for court to uphold Crystal Mason’s illegal voting acquittal
A bipartisan group of former state and federal prosecutors on Thursday, Nov. 15, filed an amicus brief urging the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals to uphold a Tarrant County woman’s acquittal by a lower court in an illegal voting case.
“Crystal Mason deserves this acquittal. She has always deserved justice,” said Christine P. Sun, senior vice president of legal at the States United Democracy Center, a D.C.-based nonpartisan election law organization, in a press release. “Voters should never be charged — much less convicted — for making good-faith mistakes. We remain confident that the court will agree that Mason’s acquittal should stand.”
Mason was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison for casting a provisional ballot while on supervised release from prison after a 2012 tax fraud conviction. The ballot was not counted and Mason has always contended that she was not aware that she was ineligible to vote.
A lower appeals court overturned Mason’s illegal voting conviction in March, but Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells appealed that ruling in April.
Sorrells said in May that he intended to make an example out of Mason in order to deter “would-be illegal voters” from casting fraudulent ballots in elections.
The DA’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The call joined another from late October filed by lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Texas Civil Rights Project who also urged the Court of Criminal Appeals to uphold the lower court’s ruling.
The brief filed on Nov. 14 was signed by a bipartisan group of prominent former prosecutors from Texas and around the country, including members of the States United Bipartisan Advisory Board. The list of signatories is:
Donald B. Ayer, Former Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Gregory A. Brower, Former Assistant Director and Deputy General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Stephen C. Bullock, Former Attorney General and Governor of Montana
Paul Coggins, Former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas
E. Thomas Coleman, Former Member of Congress from Missouri and Assistant Attorney General of Missouri
John William (Jack) Conway, Former Attorney General of Kentucky
John J. Farmer Jr., Former Assistant U.S. Attorney and New Jersey Attorney General
Jonathan S. Feld, Former Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice
Patricia A. Madrid, Former Attorney General of New Mexico
Janet A. Napolitano, Former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, Attorney General of Arizona, and Governor of Arizona
Matthew D. Orwig, Former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas
Sarah R. Saldaña, Former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas
Richard H. Stephens, Former Chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas
William F. Weld, Former Assistant U.S. Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division and Governor of Massachusetts
