Over the weekend, a story broke about woman in Texas who was sentenced to 5 years in prison after it was determined she voted illegally in the 2016 election while out of prison on probation. Yes, this sentence does seem long but the one important detail overlooked in this now mega-viral tweet thread from Daily Show writer Dan Amira is that the woman was convicted of stealing millions of dollars from taxpayers in a fraudulent tax-refund scheme she ran with her now ex-husband. Could it be that the 5-year sentence has more to do with the severity of her past crime and not on, you know, the color of her skin? Probably so, but hey, why not make it a racial issue to feed the narrative:
Huh, weird pic.twitter.com/pQQn2nMJJB
— Dan Amira (@DanAmira) March 30, 2018
Shouldn’t Amira point out that the woman on the right isn’t a felon and that’s why she was given a break?
The woman who got the heavy prison sentence broke the law accidentally. The woman who got no prison time broke the law on purpose. pic.twitter.com/npreUQJaqX
— Dan Amira (@DanAmira) March 30, 2018
Again, maybe 5 years is too harsh but let’s not pretend the severity is really because of an “accidental vote”:
Racial disparities aside, the idea that it's beneficial to society to lock someone up — black or white — for 5 years, break up a family for 5 years, foot the bill for 5 years of prison, all for one accidental vote, is so insane it makes me want to walk straight into the sea
— Dan Amira (@DanAmira) March 31, 2018
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