Activism

Voting Error Leads to 6-Year Prison Sentence for Black Woman in Tennessee

District Attorney Amy Weirich, a Republican, has been touting the success of her case, gaining nationwide attention by conservative pundits. “What we had proved, we presented to that jury, and they listened to the evidence. They listened to the facts. They applied their common sense, and they returned the verdict of guilty,” she said in a statement to WREG, a Memphis TV station.

Published

4 years ago

February 12, 2022

Oakland Post

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Pamela Moses journey began in 2019 to run for mayor of Memphis when she discovered she was not eligible because of a felony conviction. Facebook photo.

By Post Staff

Pamela Moses, a Black Lives Matter activist in Memphis, Tenn., was sentenced to six years in prison for attempting to register to vote.

Both her conviction last fall and her sentence on Feb. 4 have been met with furor by Black leaders and political progressives.

Janai Nelson, the associate director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, told NBC News it was another level of voter suppression aimed at breaking democracy in the U.S. today.

“Pamela Moses, a Black woman, has been sentenced to six years in prison because of a voting error,” Nelson’s tweet said. “Meanwhile, white individuals who are known to have committed blatant voter fraud have only received probation. There are two criminal justice systems in America.”

Referring to it as a ‘paper case,’ Josh Spickler, executive director of an advocacy group called Just City, wondered why it was prosecuted at all considering the spike in violent crime in Memphis.

“Elected officials have used incredible amounts of resources in a time when there’s a backlog in this justice system unlike any we’ve seen before. They use resources to try …(to) convict this woman for trying to vote,” he told the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

Moses, a former felon who wanted to run for mayor in 2019, tried to register to vote but was denied.

Believing that the denial was linked to miscalculating the terms of her sentence, Moses approached the department of corrections, where an official filled out the voter registration application for her, and then the county election commission signed off on her application.

What Moses didn’t know was, that under Tennessee law, her right to vote had been permanently revoked after her arrest in 2015 when she agreed to a felony plea deal because she couldn’t afford a $500,000 bond. “They never mentioned anything about not voting, being able to vote … none of that,” Moses said.

Moses would pay dearly for what she didn’t know because once the error on her voter registration application was discovered, the election commission, as was routine, notified the district attorney’s office.

What was not routine was that Moses would then face charges of perjury and falsifying an election document. This time, Moses refused to plead guilty because she didn’t believe she had done anything wrong.

In last November’s trial, Moses’ defense showed that the errors were made by government authorities, but the jury and the judge believed that Moses had knowingly attempted to subvert the law.

“I did not falsify anything,” Moses said at her sentencing hearing. “All I did was try to get my rights to vote back the way the people at the election commission told me and the way the clerk did.”

Judge Mark Ward wasn’t having it.

“You tricked the probation department into giving you documents saying you were off probation,” said Ward, who would consider granting her probation after she serves nine months.

Moses’ lawyer, Bede Anyanwu, told the Washington Post her client would appeal. “This case is one about the disparity in sentencing and punishment – and one that shouldn’t have happened.”

According to Sam Levine, an opinion writer for The Guardian, “The Republicans who actually cast illegal ballots in the name of relatives they definitely knew were dead each received light sentences. The Black woman who thought she was allowed to register to vote is set to spend the next 72 months in prison.”

At a press conference following her sentencing, Moses, 44, was joined by about a dozen supporters holding signs despite an ice storm “Trying to vote is not a crime” and “Justice for Pamela,” signs read.

In 2015, Moses pleaded guilty to two felonies and three misdemeanors, which led to her receiving probation for seven years. The felony convictions made her ineligible to vote in Tennessee permanently.

Depending on the offense, Tennessee is one of several states that disenfranchise former felons. California is one of 21 states where disenfranchisement ends after incarceration is complete. Maine, Vermont and Wash., D.C., allow prisoners to cast absentee ballots.

“I relied on the election commission because those are the people who are supposed to know what you’re supposed to do,” Moses told station WREG in Memphis. “And I found out that they didn’t know.”

Reports from The Memphis Commercial Appeal, The Guardian, The Washington Post, BET, WREG-TV and MSNBC were the sources for this report.

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Activism

Chase Oakland Community Center Hosts Alley-Oop Accelerator Building Community and Opportunity for Bay Area Entrepreneurs

Over the past three years, the Alley-Oop Accelerator has helped more than 20 Bay Area businesses grow, connect, and gain meaningful exposure. The program combines hands-on training, mentorship, and community-building to help participants navigate the legal, financial, and marketing challenges of small business ownership.

Published

1 week ago

February 21, 2026

Oakland Post

Bay Area entrepreneurs attend the Alley-Oop Accelerator, a small business incubation program at Chase Oakland Community Center. Photo by Carla Thomas.

By Carla Thomas

The Golden State Warriors and Chase bank hosted the third annual Alley-Oop Accelerator this month, an empowering eight-week program designed to help Bay Area entrepreneurs bring their visions for business to life.

The initiative kicked off on Feb. 12 at Chase’s Oakland Community Center on Broadway Street, welcoming 15 small business owners who joined a growing network of local innovators working to strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

At its core, the accelerator is designed to create an ecosystem of collaboration, where local entrepreneurs can learn from one another while accessing the resources of a global financial institution.

“This is our third year in a row working with the Golden State Warriors on the Alley-Oop Accelerator,” said Jaime Garcia, executive director of Chase’s Coaching for Impact team for the West Division. “We’ve already had 20-plus businesses graduate from the program, and we have 15 enrolled this year. The biggest thing about the program is really the community that’s built amongst the business owners — plus the exposure they’re able to get through Chase and the Golden State Warriors.”

According to Garcia, several graduates have gone on to receive vendor contracts with the Warriors and have gained broader recognition through collaborations with JPMorgan Chase.

“A lot of what Chase is trying to do,” Garcia added, “is bring businesses together because what they’ve asked for is an ecosystem, a network where they can connect, grow, and thrive organically.”

This year’s Alley-Oop Accelerator reflects that vision through its comprehensive curriculum and emphasis on practical learning. Participants explore the full spectrum of business essentials including financial management, marketing strategy, and legal compliance, while also preparing for real-world experiences such as pop-up market events.

Each entrepreneur benefits from one-on-one mentoring sessions through Chase’s Coaching for Impact program, which provides complimentary, personalized business consulting.

Garcia described the impact this hands-on approach has had on local small business owners. He recalled one candlemaker, who, after participating in the program, was invited to provide candles as gifts at Chase events.

“We were able to help give that business exposure,” he explained. “But then our team also worked with them on how to access capital to buy inventory and manage operations once those orders started coming in. It’s about preparation. When a hiccup happens, are you ready to handle it?”

The Coaching for Impact initiative, which launched in 2020 in just four cities, has since expanded to 46 nationwide.

“Every business is different,” Garcia said. “That’s why personal coaching matters so much. It’s life-changing.”

Participants in the 2026 program will each receive a $2,500 stipend, funding that Garcia said can make an outsized difference. “It’s amazing what some people can do with just $2,500,” he noted. “It sounds small, but it goes a long way when you have a plan for how to use it.”

For Chase and the Warriors, the Alley-Oop Accelerator represents more than an educational initiative, it’s a pathway to empowerment and economic inclusion. The program continues to foster lasting relationships among the entrepreneurs who, as Garcia put it, “build each other up” through shared growth and opportunity.

“Starting a business is never easy, but with the right support, it becomes possible, and even exhilarating,” said Oscar Lopez, the senior business consultant for Chase in Oakland.