Tina Peters’ sentence must be re-evaluated after Colorado appeals court ruling, but conviction is upheld
The Colorado Court of Appeals issued a ruling on Thursday upholding the felony conviction of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and asking that her sentence be re-evaluated. That ruling sends the sentencing aspect of her case back to a lower court.
The three-judge appeals court panel agreed with Peters’ argument that her First Amendment rights were violated by the Mesa County district judge who sentenced her.
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“Peters contends that the trial court violated her First Amendment right under the United States Constitution and her right under article II, section 10 of the Colorado Constitution because it punished her based on her protected speech regarding allegations of election fraud. We agree,” the opinion, authored by Chief Judge Gilbert M. Román, read, in part.
Judges Lino S. Lipinsky de Orlov and Craig R. Welling concurred.
Peters, 70, is serving time for election interference for allowing unauthorized access to voting machines following the 2020 presidential election. She was sentenced to serve over eight years in state prison in October 2024.
The court cited the First Amendment and multiple cases that ruled that a judge can’t impose a harsher sentence based on constitutionally protected speech; it must generally consider only the defendant’s actions.
The appeals court ruled that the lower court’s comments about Peters’s statements regarding election fraud “went beyond relevant considerations for her sentencing,” saying that her crime wasn’t her beliefs, but her actions. The appeals court said many of the district judge’s comments were legal and appropriate, but some went beyond what were appropriate and can be interpreted “only as the infliction of punishment because of Peters’s beliefs and statements.”
“It is apparent that the court imposed the lengthy sentence it did because Peters continued to espouse the views that led her to commit these crimes,” the appeals court ruling continued. “For these reasons, we conclude that the trial court obviously erred by imposing sentence at least partially based on Peters’s protected speech.”
Gov. Jared Polis has said that her sentence may have been too harsh.
President Trump has been pushing for the governor to release the 70-year-old from prison. Late last year, he pardoned Peters, but presidential pardons don’t apply to state charges. The court in Thursday’s published ruling also rejected Trump’s pardon.
The appeals court ruled that it lacks the authority to grant her a release, and that that would need to be ruled on through a habeas corpus petition with the court that sentenced her; the Mesa County Court.
As to the presidential pardon, the court sided with “what appears to us to be every other appellate court that has addressed the issue,” and rejected her argument, saying that violations of state law cannot be pardoned in a way that would lead to a person’s release. The court cited a 2006 case out of Oklahoma, a 1992 case out of California, and a separate 2001 case out of California.
“Peters cites no case — and our research has found none — that has held otherwise,” the ruling read.
Colorado’s 21st Judicial District Attorney Dan Rubinstein, who oversaw the case against Peters, said the ruling “underscores the strength and integrity of the judicial process.”
While he defended the prosecution against Peters and said the appeals court found no problems with the conviction, he doubted Peters would accept even the appeals court’s ruling on her sentence.
“Unless Ms. Peters accepts that ruling and concedes the absence of any error in her convictions, the case will likely proceed to the Colorado Supreme Court, and the trial court will remain without jurisdiction during that process,” Rubinstein said in a statement on Thursday.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said that regardless of the final outcome of the case, Peters jeopardized people’s safety and threatened democratic election processes.
“Whatever happens with her sentence, Tina Peters will always be a convicted felon who violated her duty as Mesa County clerk, put other lives at risk, and threatened our democracy. Nothing will remove that stain,” he said in a prepared statement.
A representative for the attorney representing Peters acknowledged a request for comment from CBS News Colorado on Thursday morning, but didn’t otherwise provide a statement in response to the ruling.
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