Prosecutor drops all charges against Pamela Moses, jailed over voting error

[Jilly_in_VA]

A Memphis prosecutor has dropped all criminal charges against Pamela Moses, the Memphis woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote.

Moses was convicted last year and sentenced in January. She was granted a new trial in February after the Guardian published a document showing that had not been given to her defense ahead of the trial.

Moses was set to appear in court on Monday to find out whether prosecutors would pursue a retrial.

The central issue in her case was whether she had known she was ineligible to vote when a probation officer filled out and signed a form indicating she was done with probation for a 2015 felony conviction and eligible to cast a ballot. Even though the probation officer admitted he had made a mistake, and Moses said she had no idea she was ineligible to vote, prosecutors said she knew she was ineligible and had deceived him. Moses stood in the lobby of the probation office while the officer went to his office to research her case for about an hour, he said at trial.

The case stirred national outrage because it underscored disparities in the way Black people are punished for voting errors. Several white defendants elsewhere have been sentenced to probation for impersonating family members and voting on their behalf.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/22/pamela-moses-prosecutor-drops-charges-memphis-tennessee

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. That prosecutor has done the Right Thing!

It really burns me to see POC treated worse than whites, esp. when it comes to voting. This sentence says it all:

Several white defendants elsewhere have been sentenced to probation for impersonating family members and voting on their behalf.

[viva la]

2. Good! I hope she sues them for malicious prosecution, because there's no excuse

except "we want to make SOME PEOPLE afraid to even register to vote. Bring back 1953!"

Meanwhile, Mark Meadows was simultaneously registered in 3 states, only one of which he lived in. And he clearly deliberately and knowingly registered from the wrong address (that he didn't own or live in) in NC. Why? How many votes did he cast? (Perhaps his wife did too.)

And he's skating free.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/22/mark-meadows-was-simultaneously-registered-vote-three-states/

[lapfog_1]

3. they got the headlines they wanted

to intimidate black voters from even registering.

So now they can drop the charges.

[Duppers]

4. Indeed!