Pamela Moses, the Memphis activist sentenced to six years in prison for voting fraud, will get a new trial.
Moses lost her voting rights with a conviction in 2015. However, she was working through proper channels to get those rights restored in 2019. Moses had her voter registration documents signed by the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) and the Shelby County Election Commission.
However, an error was made. A corrections officer mistakenly signed a document stating Moses’ probation was over, though it was not. So, she was not eligible to vote when she filed her papers to, once again, appear on the voting rolls here.
For this, she was charged, convicted, and sentenced to six years and one day for illegally attempting to register to vote. Many decried the decision, saying the sentence was too harsh and unequal to sentences given to others, particularly white men, for the same crime.
Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Mark Ward ordered the new trial Friday. Ward presided over Moses’ 2019 trial. He wrote Friday that he does not disagree with the jury’s verdict against Moses. He said Moses likely knew she was still on probation while she was attempting to restore her voting rights, especially with a court order stating her probation would not be over until 2022, he said.
“Based on this evidence, it was reasonable and legitimate for the jury to infer that [Moses] knew the representations on the form about her probation were untrue when she obtained the statement from the probation officer and when she attempted to use false information to register to vote,” Ward wrote in the order.
The new trial comes as Ward said some evidence in the 2021 trial should not have been admitted. Also, Ward said prosecutors in the case failed to hand over an email to Moses’ attorney that could have possibly aided her defense. However, prosecutors said they had never seen the email in question before handed a copy of it by Moses’ attorney. Moses’ attorney said the failure to disclose it was not intentional.
Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich said her office was not to blame for the mistake.
“When reporters or political opportunists use the word ‘state’ they need to be crystal clear that the error was made by the [Tennessee Department of Corrections] and not any attorney or officer in the office of the Shelby County District Attorney.”
Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich
“The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) failed to turn over a necessary document in the case of Pamela Moses and therefore her conviction has been overturned by the judge,” Weirich said in a statement Friday. “When reporters or political opportunists use the word ‘state’ they need to be crystal clear that the error was made by the TDOC and not any attorney or officer in the office of the Shelby County District Attorney.”
Josh Spickler, executive director with the criminal reform advocacy group Just City, said Weirich’s office “has a well-documented record of failing to produce evidence that could benefit the accused.”
“Yet again, in a very high-profile case that has made national headlines, her office has failed to produce a critical document, and a judge has reversed a conviction,” Spickler said. “We can’t know how often this happens, but this is a clear pattern and it must be addressed. Our community deserves better than this.”
