#5 This is the "black voter suppression" case that Jeff Sessions was prosecuting. The allegations of racism stem from a 1985 voter fraud prosecution that then-U.S. Attorney Sessions brought at the behest of African Americans who feared other African Americans’ votes were being stolen to elect one set of African-American candidates over another. Several African Americans, including Albert Turner who was an aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were the defendants.
There wasn’t much dispute on the facts of the case: Albert Turner forged, voted for, requested and/or redelivered absentee ballots for almost 500 voters – almost entirely African Americans –against his African-American political opponents. There are two interpretations of what happened here: was the conduct proxy voting or voter assistance? |
