Cotton v. Fordice

EDITH H. JONES, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Keith Brown 1 is serving a sentence for armed robbery in a Mississippi state penitentiary. He wants to vote and complains, via a § 1983 suit, that the appel-lees unconstitutionally disenfranchised him. The Mississippi Constitution denies the ballot to any person “convicted of murder, rape, bribery, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretenses, perjury, forgery, embezzlement or bigamy.” Miss. Const, art. XII, § 241 (1890). Brown argues that because the Mississippi Constitution does not expressly list “armed robbery” as a disenfranchising…