Case of Woman Sentenced to 5 Years for Trying to Vote Is Back in Court

Crystal Mason, the Black woman sentenced to five years behind bars for attempting to vote when she was ineligible to do so, will again be considered by the Texas court of criminal appeals, the state's highest criminal court. The court previously reviewed the case in 2022, when it kicked it back to a lower court after finding that the lower court had erred in upholding Mason's conviction. After that lower court reconsidered the case, Mason's conviction was thrown out in March. Her lawyers hoped that would be that—but the local district attorney appealed the decision, so back to the court of criminal appeals it goes, the Guardian reports. At issue is whether Mason realized she was not eligible to vote (because she was on supervised release for a federal tax felony at the time).

The lower court tossed the conviction after finding there was not sufficient evidence to prove Mason realized her ineligibility, but the DA believes the evidence was indeed sufficient, WFAA reports. "The appellate court erroneously interpreted ambiguous testimony in the defense's favor, credited evidence that the trial court was free to disregard, reweighed evidence in a manner favoring the defense, and disregarded evidence that supported the trial court's findings, all at odds with the binding precedent of this court," lawyers for his office wrote in a legal filing. The court of criminal appeals will decide the case with no oral arguments, and has not yet set a timeline for the case. (More Texas stories.)