A Black Lives Matter activist convicted of illegal voter registration will no longer have to carry out her jail sentence after Tennessee prosecutors dropped all charges against her on Friday.
Pamela Moses, who was sentenced in January to six years and one day for illegally registering to vote in 2019, was granted a retrial when evidence supporting the activist’s defense was revealed after her sentencing. Moses was set to appear in court on Monday to determine whether prosecutors would pursue a retrial, with attorneys announcing Friday they would dismiss all charges.
“In total, she spent 82 days in custody on this case, which is sufficient,” said Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich in a statement. “In the interest of judicial economy, we are dismissing her illegal registration case and her violation of probation.”
BLACK LIVES MATTER ACTIVIST SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR REGISTERING TO VOTE DESPITE CONVICTION
The activist was convicted last year on charges of trying to register to vote despite having a former conviction of tampering with evidence, which permanently revokes voting rights for Tennessee residents, according to state law. Moses testified she was unaware she was ineligible, but prosecutors argued she knew she couldn’t vote and had tricked her probation officer into signing a certificate that restored her voting rights.
However, the probation officer failed to investigate Moses’s probation history thoroughly, causing him to sign a certificate mistakenly in September 2019 that declared her probation sentence was complete and that she was eligible to vote, newly revealed evidence showed. Two days later, officials at the Tennessee Department of Corrections determined it was an oversight by the probation officer.
This email was never presented in court, and Moses’s lawyers said it had not been shared with them before the trial, claiming they didn’t know it existed.
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Moses is still permanently barred from voting in Tennessee because of her previous convictions, as state residents with felonies cannot vote until they have completed their entire sentence, including probation and parole, according to state law.
The activist has not yet publicly responded to the dropped charges but said she plans to hold a press conference on Monday to comment on the case.
