Amid a tangle of legal circumstances, the voter fraud case against Black Lives Matter activist Pamela Moses is no more.
District Attorney Amy Weirich announced on Friday that charges against Moses for an illegal attempt to vote were — “in the interests of judicial economy” — being dismissed.
There had been running controversy and a flurry of protests — both legal and streetwise — against Moses’ earlier conviction in criminal court for voter fraud and the severity of her prescribed punishment.
Judge Mark Ward, who had sentenced Moses to six years in prison after a trial in which she was accused of submitting false documents to the election commission, later awarded Moses the right to a new trial on the basis of newly reviewed evidence.
Part of that evidence was presumably a document from the state Department of Corrections which had erroneously stated that Moses was eligible to vote on the basis that her probation from a previous felony conviction had ended. Moses had presented this document to election authorities.
The department’s document was in error, however. Moses was still on probation at the time for her 2015 conviction on a variety of charges, including tampering with evidence, forgery and misdemeanor charges of perjury, stalking, and theft under $500. Moses had entered a guilty plea on the charges.
In announcing that her office would not go forward with prosecuting Moses in a new trial, Weirich said the total of 82 days in jail Moses had spent in jail were “sufficient,” and she noted that, on the basis of state law, Moses is “permanently barred from registering to vote or voting in Tennessee as a result of her 2015 conviction for tampering with evidence.”
Steve Mulroy, one of three Democratic D.A. candidates vying in the party primary for the right to oppose Weirich in the August county election, issued this statement: “This case should never have been brought in the first place. But it’s reassuring to know that, after international press coverage, a court-ordered reversal, and months of sustained public protest, Amy Weirich will eventually do the right thing.”
