Tarrant County illegal voting case is back in court following appeal by district attorney

Texas’ highest ranking criminal appellate court will review the ruling that overturned the conviction of a North Texas woman accused of voting illegally.

Crystal Mason, who is from Rendon, was cleared of an illegal voting conviction in March 2024 , seemingly putting an end to a years-long legal battle. But soon after the Texas 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth overturned the conviction, the decision was appealed by the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, led by District Attorney Phil Sorrells.

The Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday agreed to review the case . The case has previously come before the court , which, at the time, ordered the lower court to revisit the case .

“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 in a ACLU of Texas news release.

Mason was accused of illegally voting with a provisional ballot in 2016 in Tarrant County while on supervised release for a 2012 tax fraud conviction. The vote was never counted, and her attorneys have argued that Mason did not know she was inelgible to vote.

The 2nd Court of Appeals found that Mason did not have actual knowledge that she couldn’t vote, and thus there wasn’t enough evidence to support her conviction.

The trial court’s original guilty verdict should be upheld and Mason’s acquittal reversed, the District Attorney’s Office argued in a April 25 court filing and news release .

“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.

In its April news release, the office argued 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.”

“The 2nd Court of Appeals failed to give proper deference to the trial court’s guilty verdict and reweighed the evidence in favor of Mason,” the office said at the time.

Mason’s legal team was confident that Mason’s acquittal will ultimately be upheld.

“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, in a statement. “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.”