#RolandMartinUnfiltered - This Is Ridiculous! Crystal Mason, Convicted Of Unknowingly Voting Illegally, Seeks New Trial

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an iHeart Podcast. You can make this possible. Well, to show you the hypocrisy again, folks, when you talk about that, you look at what happened in Texas with Crystal Mason, of course, a sister who previously was in federal prison. She voted in the election, did not realize she could not vote, and again, book thrown at her over the five years in prison. And so she today, of course, went to court with an appeal in that particular case. And you talk about, again, an absolutely crazy story. And it's not like you have folks who are saying, OK, innocent mistake.

Starting point is 00:00:54 It makes no sense to put her in jail for this long. Now, Texas Republicans have been real quiet about that one. Joining us right now is her attorney, Kim Cole. Kim, how are you doing? I'm fine, Roland. How are you? I'm doing great. Crystal, how are you? How are you doing? I'm fine. Thanks for asking.

Starting point is 00:01:07 All right. So what happened in court today, Kim? So today, the second court of appeals heard our oral arguments for Crystal's appeal, and they will be making a ruling on that sometime within the next few months or so there isn't a specific time limit or amount of time that they will be returning a ruling it could take months some cases have actually taken years right so we're just awaiting their ruling but they do hear our oral argument today. So let's, so Crystal, exactly where are you now? Are you out of prison?

Starting point is 00:01:53 Are you in a facility? Are you at home? I'm at home. So explain for the folks exactly what's happening with you. I'm at home right now. I'm still on supervised release on the federal level. and I'm fighting the five years on the state level. So you serve your federal time, they said, for violating your parole conditions, but this five years, that's on the state level? Correct, yes.

Starting point is 00:02:20 And Kim, do you not have people in Texas who are saying this is ridiculous that you would try to send somebody to prison for five years for innocent mistakes such as voting? Certainly. There are plenty of people here in Texas who find this Crystal's conviction absolutely ridiculous. Any Republicans? No. Okay. No. I was I was joined by the ACLU and they presented the oral argument today of course the ACLU has been working very hard they joined us on Crystal's case a couple of months ago and they've been working very hard to fight this unjust conviction. Yeah, so it is just, again, it's crazy when you look at this particular case, when you look at the fact that they prosecuted this case, it makes no sense whatsoever.

Starting point is 00:03:17 Crystal, how has this impacted your family? I know at one point we were putting the gofundme out because you were you're possibly uh losing your home so uh you know what's happening again now right now um this is i'm still trying to put the pieces back together um also uh the gofundme account has been keeping us afloat. And just when I went back and got back on supervised release, they implemented a form now. And it's a form that gives you, lets you know about your voting rights. It actually lays it out and let us know now that while on supervised release, we're ineligible to vote.

Starting point is 00:04:09 Well, if I had that, I signed that form July the 22nd, 2019. But if that form was available August, 2016, I wouldn't be going through this right now. Well, it certainly is ridiculous that Texas is spending the amount of money going through this, now. Well, it certainly is ridiculous that Texas is spending the amount of money going through this. Just makes no sense whatsoever. So certainly keep us up to date on what's going on and we'll keep letting our people be aware of this case. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Crystal Mason, Kim Cole. Thanks a lot.

Starting point is 00:04:41 Malik, this is stupid. This is stupid that the prosecutor there in Texas and the folks there are pursuing this case here. Five years. That is an absolute waste of resources. Somebody who already had parole revoked, who went back into federal prison, came out. It's stupid to say, fine, we're still going to try to send you to Texas prison for five years. I mean, I totally agree with that.

Starting point is 00:05:07 You know, don't know what's going on with Texas. They probably moved from Mississippi. Don't try to put that on Mississippi. They probably moved from Mississippi. Don't try to put that on Mississippi. This is deep in the heart of Texas. Right there in Fort Worth, a very red county. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:05:22 That's your party. And it's your state. I know, and I'm calling them out in my state for being yeah, yeah. That's your party. And it's your state. I know, and I'm calling them out in my state for being a foul, Michael. And what I can say about what's happening in your state is that this sounds ridiculous, especially in

Starting point is 00:05:36 an era where we're talking about criminal justice reform, sentencing reform to put people back in jail to make the taxpayers pay for what could, whether it was an intentional or not, essentially is a clerical, sort of clerical-like mistake to send someone to jail for really any significant length of time, a year even, or six months even.

Starting point is 00:05:58 It just sounds ridiculous. And so I hope that, I think she's appealing. But, you know, I hope that that she goes home. This is pure trash, Michael. It's just it's a way it's a waste of resources. Absolutely. I mean, we all know about the First Step Act and that's that's great. And it's the first great start. But until you deal with sentencing reform, it doesn't matter what you do with making sure that the First Step Act is implemented. But the First Step Act is on the federal level. Right. This is state. And I'm not even suggesting this should have been even a fine crime.

Starting point is 00:06:29 I think this is one of those you stand in front of the judge and the judge says, hey, don't do this again. Right. Especially when her parole officer testified. Correct. She did not know she couldn't vote. Correct. It's crazy.

Starting point is 00:06:41 But there was no intent. Without intent, you can't break a law. Kelly is crazy. But there was no intent. Without intent, you can't break a law. Kelly is crazy. But again, we see how the GOP plays this game. Again, this is a Republican district attorney, Republican judge who she went for in Texas, and let's throw the book at her. What really surprises me is that she wasn't the only one who did this at that time.

Starting point is 00:07:02 So when I was reading about this case, out of the 4,500 people who cast provisional ballots, about 3,990 of those 4,500 people, those ballots were rejected. But she's the only one who ended

Starting point is 00:07:17 up in court. It just seems like they're making an example out of her for no reason, and this is like the weakest case to make an example out of somebody. It does. They're making an example out of her for no reason, and this is like the weakest case to make an example out of somebody. Mm-hmm. It does. They're making an example out of her. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:07:30 Yep. Black folks already do that. But at what cost? And that's the problem. I'm pretty sure that some of that 3,000 number, I'm pretty sure that a number of them were black too. Either way, it's still wrong. If any of those people were being evicted.

Starting point is 00:07:44 Which is why I said that it was wrong. But whether or not, you know, as you said, I think that they wanted to make an example out of her. And that's what they're doing. And I hope that she wins her appeal or whatever and goes home soon. As opposed to those in North Carolina who actually participated in rampant election fraud.

Starting point is 00:08:02 Gotcha. All right, folks, back to that. We'll be back withark unfiltered video in just one moment. ¶¶ That's the man, Albright there, folks. He's going to be one of the performers at the Life Luck Jazz Experience taking place in Cabo, November 7th through the 11th for his top-notch music, Upscale Destination. Got a week-long events plan at the Omnia Day Club Los Cabos,

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#RolandMartinUnfiltered - This Is Ridiculous! Crystal Mason, Convicted Of Unknowingly Voting Illegally, Seeks New Trial

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