TARRANT COUNTY, Texas — Texas’ highest criminal court announced Wednesday it will hear the case of Crystal Mason, a Tarrant County woman whose voter fraud conviction was previously overturned.
Mason was convicted of illegal voting in 2016 after submitting a provisional ballot that was never counted while on supervised release for a 2012 tax fraud conviction, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. She was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison.
Texas’ Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth overturned her conviction in March, saying in their opinion at the time that there was evidence showing Mason may not have known her felony conviction made her ineligible to vote. The case had come before the court before, which, at the time, ordered the lower court to revisit the case.
Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells challenged Mason’s acquittal in April, insisting she committed a crime.
Mason is represented in her appeal by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, ACLU National, Texas Civil Rights Project, criminal defense attorney Alison Grinter Allen, and civil attorney Kim T. Cole.
“While I am ready for this case to be over and for my acquittal to stand, I will continue to maintain my faith that justice will be done,” Mason said in a statement shared by the ACLU.
"We respect the Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision to further review this case,” said Tommy Buser-Clancy, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas. “We remain confident that the court of appeals made the right decision in vacating Ms. Mason’s conviction and rendering an acquittal. We look forward to briefing our position to the court.”
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals didn’t provide more information about why it granted Sorrells’ petition for discretionary review. Oral arguments won’t be held in the case, according to the court’s order.
“The next step will be for the parties to file briefs with the Court of Criminal Appeals addressing the appropriate standard of review and whether Mason’s conviction is supported by sufficient evidence,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement to the Star-Telegram.
The Tarrant County District Attorney argued in April that Mason was “convicted based on testimony from the election judge and poll clerk that she read the provisional voter affidavit, affirmed that she provided accurate information, signed the affidavit, and testified that the affidavit language was clearly understandable to mean that a convicted felon, such as herself, was ineligible to vote.”