A Black Woman was sentenced to six years and one day in prison, having been convicted of illegally registering to vote.
Pamela Moses, 44, a Black woman and Black Lives Matter activist, had 16 prior felony convictions and attempted to register to vote when she was ineligible and on probation, according to the Shelby County Districcat Attorney’s Office.
The former Democratic candidate for mayor in Memphis, has said that she had done everything she needed to do to regain her right to vote in Tennessee.
She had a long list of felony convictions leading to her right to vote being revoked. She has said she didn’t know she lost the right to vote when she pleaded guilty.
The judge who sentenced Moses accused her of deceiving officials but Moses argued that she believed her voting rights had been restored when she looked into voting in 2019.
In 2019, Moses ran for Memphis mayor before being told by Shelby County Elections officials that she couldn’t appear on the ballot because of her felony. While looking into her eligibility, the officials also realized she had never been taken off of the voting rolls.
Moses then went to court and asked a judge to clarify whether she was still on probation, and the court confirmed that she was, after which she went to the local probation office and asked an officer to figure out if the judge had calculated her sentence correctly.
An officer filled out and signed a certificate confirming her probation had ended and Moses submitted that document to local election officials along with a voter registration form.
An official at the corrections department later contacted the election officials and said that officer had made an error- Moses was still serving an active felony sentence and was not eligible to vote. Moses was later charged, and sentenced, for trying to register to vote, not for casting a ballot.
The former charge was dropped, because there was no false statement from Moses on the voting form, but she was convicted of the second charge in November and sentenced January 31 to six years and one day in prison.
Bede Anyanwu, Moses’ lawyer said “This is a vendetta-type prosecution.” He added that Judge W. Mark, Ward of Criminal Court, had “acted like a bully and slammed her” with a lengthy sentence.
Video of the hearing shows Moses telling Ward, “All I did was try to get my rights to vote back the way the people at the election commission told me.”
Ward responded, “You tricked the probation department into giving you a document saying that you were off probation.”
Amy Weirich, the local prosecutor, has trumpeted both the conviction and the sentence in press releases. She has highlighted that Moses has an extensive criminal record, and told a straightforward story about Moses’ voting crime.
There has been growing awareness of racial disparities in punishments for election-related crimes. Black people such as Crystal Mason and Hervis Rogers have faced years in prison for making mistakes about their voting eligibility. White voters have received much lighter sentences for election-related crimes.
Moses is currently in custody and an appeal is expected. But the case highlights the complicated mess that people with felony convictions have to go through to figure out if they can vote. And it shows the harsh consequences prosecutors can bring if people with felony convictions make a mistake.
Atty. Anyanwu said his client was stunned by the six-year sentence but hopes it can be overturned. He said: “She believes the sentencing was beyond the evidence that was presented”, adding that he hopes the case can be back in court by June.
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