Judge orders new trial for US woman sentenced to six years for trying to register to vote

[LetMyPeopleVote]

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A Memphis judge has ordered a new trial for Pamela Moses, a woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote.

The case attracted national attention following a Guardian report, because of the severity of the sentence. Moses said she had no idea she was ineligible.

Moses has been in prison since December, when her bond was revoked. On Thursday, the Guardian revealed new evidence in the case that was not produced at trial. Moses was released from custody on Friday, according to Claiborne Ferguson, her attorney.

“We are so excited that the motion for new trial was granted for Pamela Moses today and that she is able to return home to her family while she awaits trial. We hope that she receives justice and is found not guilty for the admitted mistakes of the state of Tennessee,” said Dawn Harrington, the executive director of Free Hearts, a criminal justice organization in Tennessee that supported Moses.

[elleng]

1. THANK GOODNESS!!!

[Thomas Hurt]

2. I heard that she was running for mayor or some such and the reason the judge...

granted the new trial was someone was hiding possibly exculpatory evidence. Smells like a frame up now.

[oasis]

3. Justice at last. nt

[yonder]

4. This is EXCELLENT news. Let's hope she sees justice.

[struggle4progress]

5. Why should she be in prison for their error?

Georgina Yeomans and Kevin Jason

... The whole situation stemmed from a government official's error, but Moses was the one held accountable ... This dichotomy illustrates some of the deepest failures of our legal system, which protects officials and punishes citizens – particularly Black citizens, like Moses.

Moses, a Black Lives Matter activist and recent mayoral hopeful in Memphis, had completed a prison sentence for a 2015 felony conviction when she sought information in 2019 on her voting eligibility. Under Tennessee law, those convicted of a felony lose their right to vote, but they can have their voting rights restored. They just need a government agent to complete a form.

A judge told Moses she was still on probation, but an official with her probation office told her the opposite and signed her restoration form, which Moses then submitted as part of her voter registration. But the probation office later informed election officials Moses was ineligible to register to vote.

Corrections officials investigated the error right away and determined the probation officer made a mistake, but that evidence wasn't introduced at trial. To the contrary, prosecutors crafted a narrative, which the judge initially adopted, that Moses somehow “tricked” the probation officer into signing her form ...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2022/03/01/qualified-immunity-registering-vote-pamela-moses-trial/6845641001/

[struggle4progress]

6. Requested jury trial, so she got 6 years

BILLY BINION | 2.17.2022 5:20 PM

... while Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich agrees that prison term isn't proportional to the offense, she says it is justified for a different reason: the defendant, Pamela Moses, insisted on going to trial.

"I gave her a chance to plead to a misdemeanor with no prison time," Weirich said in a statement. "She requested a jury trial instead. She set this unfortunate result in motion and a jury of her peers heard the evidence and convicted her" ...

Weirich's statement came in response to a segment on Rachel Maddow's .. show. During that slot, the host compared Moses' case to four other voter fraud cases centered around white Republican men who usurped dead relatives' identities to vote for former President Donald Trump; three received probation, while the fourth served three days in jail. That's evocative of "two justice systems" ...

Weirich's statement was meant to rebut those claims: Moses, too, could have taken advantage of a good deal should she have wanted to. Yet that's not necessarily the strong argument Weirich thinks it is, says Carissa Byrne Hessick, a professor of law at UNC Chapel Hill ... "What's stunning to me is that there is just no recognition by people inside the criminal justice system," she tells me, "that sending someone to prison for six years for exercising their constitutional right isn't equally problematic and disturbing" ...

https://reason.com/2022/02/17/pamela-moses-voter-fraud-requested-jury-trial-6-years-in-prison/