It’s been said that ignorance of the law is no excuse. But blind justice isn’t necessarily justice, either.
Such is the case of Crystal Mason, a Tarrant County woman convicted of voter fraud. Mason was sentenced to five years in prison in 2018 for presenting a provisional ballot two years earlier while she was still under sentence for a federal fraud conviction.
She won a temporary legal victory when a Fort Worth appeals court overturned her conviction in March on grounds that state law requires prosecutors to prove someone intended to commit voter fraud.
But Mason’s case isn’t over. The Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, recently agreed to hear an appeal from Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells. His office contends Mason was on supervised release, had not yet completed her sentence and had signed a provisional ballot affidavit with language that indicated she was ineligible.
Opinion
But here’s where the law and common sense diverge. Mason insisted she didn’t know she was ineligible. Moreover, the provisional ballot she cast wasn’t counted and no one could prove that Mason knew she was breaking a rule.
And yet this case has lingered for seven years. In our view, Mason has become a political hostage, facing unimaginably severe consequences in the sort of case that is rarely prosecuted.
Why? Because leading Texas Republicans are desperate to demonstrate that voter fraud is a widespread problem affecting our elections.
There is no evidence that is true, and Mason’s case doesn’t begin to show it is.
At best, Mason’s case indicates the system worked. She wasn’t permitted to cast a regular ballot. She was offered a provisional ballot, which was flagged and never counted.
Her awareness of her legal right to vote and her intent to commit a crime are what is at issue, and the state never proved beyond a reasonable doubt that she knowingly and intentionally voted illegally.
If we thought that a major legal principle were being defended or that our elections were actually at risk from fraud or that Mason nefariously tried to undermine an election, we would be calling for another court review.
But what principle is at stake? The system worked. What example is being made? A woman with limited knowledge of the law tried and failed to vote.
There is something at stake here, but it isn’t about stopping voter fraud. It is about using fear of voter fraud as a path to power.
Attorney General Ken Paxton, a leader in promoting the false voter fraud narrative, succeeded in seeing his preferred candidates win the Republican primary for the Criminal Court of Appeals
He targeted experienced, conservative Republican judges because they didn’t align with his attempt to expand his own authority. Paxton wants to be able to use his office to unilaterally prosecute voter fraud. The court had ruled 8-1 that the Texas Constitution’s separation of powers article prohibits such an expansion.
Paxton’s reaction wasn’t to accept the plain language of that law as a real conservative would. His response was to try to undo judges who refused to accept his power grab. After the ruling, he tweeted that the Court of Criminal Appeals’ “shameful decision means local DAs with radical liberal views have the sole power to prosecute election fraud in TX — which they will never do.”
Given the influence we believe Paxton now wields over the state’s highest criminal appellate court, we fear that Mason may become a political victim. Her freedom is at stake alongside the integrity and independence of our courts.
The 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth correctly ruled that Mason’s conviction should be overturned based on the plain language of the law and the facts of the case. The Court of Criminal Appeals could have let the lower court’s ruling stand, erasing Mason’s conviction. By deciding to take the case, the court has at the very least signaled some of its judges think a review is necessary. The court had previously overturned the 2nd Court of Appeals and ordered a new review based on election law changes the Legislature made in 2021. Those changes actually softened the rules around provisional ballots in response to Mason’s case.
The slowing, winding path through the courts is a travesty. Prosecution of voting fraud cases should show more direct evidence of intent and consequence than demonstrated in this instance.
In this heightened political atmosphere, the underlying political machinations are impossible to ignore. It seems to us that naked politics are perverting justice and pursuing a prosecution of what has every sign of being an honest mistake.
For Mason’s sake, and for the sake of us all, this madness has to end.
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Publish date : 2024-08-27 20:00:00
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