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Memphis prosecutors have dropped all criminal charges against 44-year-old Pamela Moses, a Black Lives Matter activist who was unlawfully convicted of illegal voter registration in 2019.
On April 22, Moses, who was originally facing six years in prison for the felony charge, had her sentence overturned.
Shelby County district attorney Amy Weirich issued a statement following the decision that read:
“In the interest of judicial economy, we are dismissing her illegal registration case and her violation of probation.”
Moses was convicted in November 2019 after serving seven years of probation for two separate felonies and three misdemeanors that occurred in 2015. The steadfast activist thought that she had successfully finished her probation after she received a certificate of completion from the Tennessee Department of Correction, but upon registering to vote, the document was rescinded, according to NPR.
Moses filed a motion requesting a new trial back in February, which led to Criminal Court Judge Mark Ward overturning her conviction. She was granted a second trial, but that will no longer take place now that the charges have been dropped.
E-mail exposes the Tennessee Department of Correction’s negligence
On Friday, Memphis prosecutors overturned the sentence, noting that officials from the Tennessee Department of Correction failed to provide evidence of “a necessary document” to prove Moses’ wrong-doing. Additionally, in an e-mail obtained by voting rights reporter Sam Levine, prosecutors found that the probation officer, who was identified as Manager Billington, “failed to adequately investigate the status of this case.”
The e-mail continued:
“He failed to review all of the official documents available through the Shelby County Justice portal and negligently relied on a contact note from a court specialist in 2016. Had Manager Billington thoroughly investigated he would have found that an additional probation order dated March 4th, 2019 was executed following that revocation spelling out the new terms of the probation as well as an order filed June 13h 2019 advising Pamela Moses that she remained on supervision until August 13, 2020.”
Moses spent 82 days in custody for the false charge, which was “sufficient,” according to Weirich.
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