MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Pam Moses will serve nine months of a six-year sentence Monday, after she was found guilty of making or consenting to false information on an election document.
Moses wasn’t in the courtroom as the judge issued a sentence. Instead, her attorney gave her the news.
Judge Mark Ward refused to give her bond. In his ruling, he noted that Moses has 16 prior criminal convictions and was on probation when the incident happened.
“He felt that releasing her now is not justified. There is no reason to release her now given her lengthy history of criminal activity,” said Bebe Anyanwu, Moses’ attorney.
Moses said she thought her voting rights had been restored when she attempted to register to vote and probation and election officials initially signed off on it.
She also thinks her case became political because she spoke out against some elected officials.
Her new attorney was hired for the sentencing portion of the case. He said the judge was doing most of the questioning at the hearing.
“It’s that simple. You went down to the probation office, told them you weren’t on probation, tricked them into giving you a form so you could re-register to vote when you had a court order in your hand from the judge presiding over your case,” Judge Ward said.
Moses’ attorney said that from the judicial demeanor in the case, bias was at play.
“Law school teaches you that a judge’s role is not to take sides and if I was the one that handled this case right from the get go, he could have been out of this case. Because, there is a lot of bias in it,” Anyanwu said.
But for now, Moses’ future will be behind bars.
“She took it as a lady. She said God is in control and God will handle it,” Anyanwu said.
Pam Moses has a status update on May 20. Her attorney said, depending on her behavior, she could be released at that time.