By Philip Jankowski
https://www.dallasnews.com
Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells has appealed a recent ruling that overturned the 2018 conviction of Crystal Mason, a Tarrant County woman whose voter fraud case has received national attention.
The appeal thrusts Mason’s fate back into question and resumes litigation in her illegal voting case that has spanned seven years. Should Mason’s conviction be reinstated, she could face up to five years in prison.
“The trial court’s guilty verdict should be affirmed,” a statement from Sorrells’ office said. “Voting is a cornerstone of our democracy. This office will protect the ballot box from fraudsters who think our laws don’t apply to them.”
Mason’s case drew national attention after a judge sentenced her to five years in prison for submitting a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election while she was on parole. Her ballot was not counted after election officials confirmed she was not eligible to vote.
Voting rights advocates said the severity of Mason’s sentence spotlighted inequities in Texas’ voting laws.
Mason, 49, became a voting rights advocate after her conviction. She did not respond to a message seeking comment.
“Know your rights,” she said last month after her conviction was overturned. “If you’re eligible to vote, please vote. And don’t let my story discourage you.”
Mason’s case went through a lengthy appeals process that appeared to have come to a close last month when a Fort Worth appeals court overturned her conviction, saying it was based on insufficient evidence that Mason knew she was ineligible to vote.
Mason defense attorney Alison Grinter Allen said in a text message Thursday that the ruling “corrected an injustice that not only caused immeasurable suffering to Crystal and her family but also served as an implicit threat to minority voters in Texas.”
“The idea that the Tarrant County district attorney’s office wants to double down on this hurtful and illegal prosecution is as shocking as it is frightening,” Grinter Allen said. “Evidently we have not seen the end of the era of voter intimidation and politicization of the criminal courts in Tarrant County.”
In a petition to the Court of Criminal Appeals, the district attorney’s office said the Fort Worth appeals court got it wrong in Mason’s case by lending too much weight to her “self-serving testimony.”
“The appellate court effectively sat as a thirteenth juror, consistent with analytical constructs long rejected by this Court. This Court should not allow that outcome to stand,” the petition said.
Thomas Buser-Clancy, Mason’s attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said her legal team was confident it would prevail.
“The court of appeals’ decision was well-reasoned and correct,” Buser-Clancy said. “It is time to give Ms. Mason peace with her family.”
The case has focused on an affidavit that Mason signed at a polling location in 2016 that indicated she was not a felon on supervised release when she submitted a provisional ballot. In Texas, felons can vote after their sentence is completed. Mason, however, was on parole for federal fraud charges when she attempted to vote.
The charges landed her back in federal prison to complete the final 10 months of her sentence.
Mason has maintained that she did not know she was ineligible to vote and would not have signed the affidavit had she been aware of the provision that made it illegal for her to vote in Texas.
Her case has been a focal point in the political fight over voter fraud laws. During the 2021 legislative session, state lawmakers changed voter fraud laws with Mason’s case in mind to prevent the prosecution of anyone who mistakenly attempts to cast a vote.
But last year, Republicans in the state Senate attempted to lower the bar for prosecuting voter fraud in similar cases. Critics argued the measure would have outlawed provisional ballots. Proponents said it was necessary to secure elections. The measure did not pass.
What lies ahead for Mason’s case is up to the Court of Criminal Appeals. The state’s highest criminal court has already weighed in once on her case when it overturned a previous ruling of the 2nd Court of Appeals and ordered a new review based on election law changes the Legislature made in 2021.
The case could become politically fraught for the nine-judge court. Three Republican incumbents lost their primaries in March after Attorney General Ken Paxton campaigned against them, accusing the judges of being soft on election fraud.
The court could also opt against reviewing the case. If that happens, the lower court’s ruling would stand, and Mason’s conviction would be permanently erased.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
