We Must Demand Better Justice for Woman Sentenced to Eight Years for Illegal Voting

The way things look now, it'll be months before Rosa Maria Ortega, the Mexican native sentenced to eight years in prison by a Tarrant County jury for voting illegally, finds any judicial relief.Months before her court-appointed attorney, David A. Pearson, is ready to file an appeal.Months before her trial attorney, Clark Birdsall, will petition the judge to suspend the balance of her sentence and, instead, put the mother of four on "shock probation."Months - almost a year, really - before she's eligible for parole.Months, in other words, before the criminal justice system can pull its pants up and fix a cruelly harsh and heavy punishment.Rosa Ortega, a woman who came to this country when she was 13 and has a 6th-grade education, got rolled over by a system she didn't understand.  Continue reading...