Charges have been dropped against the founder of Black Lives Matter Memphis who was convicted of illegal voter registration, despite the fact that she was already sentenced to six years in prison.
Tennessee prosecutors dropped all charges against Pamela Moses on Friday.
Moses was sentenced to six years and one day in prison in January for her 2019 scheme.
After being granted a new trial, prosecutors opted to drop the charges entirely — claiming that the 82 days she served in prison was sufficient.
“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.”
Moses was convicted of attempting to register to vote, despite not being eligible due to a previous case of tampering with evidence.
“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,” the Washington Examiner reports. “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.”
Moses will remain ineligible to vote, as Tennessee law bars people convicted of felonies from voting until they have completed half of their sentence, including any probation or parole.
The activist has said that they will be holding a press conference about the case on Monday.