Memphis BLM Founder Sentenced To Six Years In Federal Prison For Voting Illegally While Being Convicted Of Several Crimes

The founder of Black Lives Matter Memphis was found guilty on several counts of illegal voting after “tricking” probation officers into incorrectly restoring her right to vote.

Last Thursday, Criminal Court Judge W. Mark Ward told chapter founder Pamela Moses, “You fooled the probation department into handing you documentation stating you were off probation.”

According to the Daily Mail on Sunday, Moses voted illegally six times after pleading guilty to charges including evidence tampering, lying, forgery, stalking, and theft under $500 in 2015.

However, the BLM activist said in court that she had no idea she was still on probation, which lasted seven years, and that she assumed her voting rights had been restored in 2019.

“I didn’t lie about anything.” “All I did was attempt to obtain my voting privileges back the way the folks at the election commission informed me and the clerk did,” she told the court on Jan. 26 during her sentencing hearing.

According to the Daily Mail, after running for mayor in 2019, the Institution of Tennessee graduate, who got a degree in political science from the university, learned she was still on probation. She went to a probation officer after a court checked her probation to ensure that it was correct.

The officer then presented the activist with a certificate of achievement, which she used to obtain her voting privileges.

Moses stated that she discovered the probation issue when she sought to run for mayor of Memphis in 2019 and was informed she couldn’t because of her convictions.

Moses, a singer and activist, went back to court to find out if she was still on probation. According to the Daily Mail, she then returned to the probation office to have officials confirm her term, “since she thought it was too lengthy, and an officer signed a form indicating her probation had concluded.”

According to The Guardian, a jail officer emailed an elections official a few days later, stating that Moses’ probationary sentence was still in effect and that she was thus unable to vote.

During her trial last month, prosecutors said that Moses was still on probation when she provided the certificate, despite having been told by a judge that she was ineligible.

Moses was sentenced to six years and one day in jail, but her attorney plans to file an appeal. “This is a lawsuit concerning inequities in sentencing and punishment,” attorney Bede Anyanwu told the Washington Post. “It’s all quite disturbing.”

According to The Grio, a black-centric newspaper, Moses was merely convicted of “registering to vote.” Her sentence is also being challenged by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which claims that the United States has “two sentencing systems.”