Tina Peters, the Republican former election clerk, was imprisoned for overcharged ‘crimes’ related to her actions in the sketchy 2020 election. She will receive clemency from Colorado’s Democrat Gov. Jared Polis and soon be released from custody, Polis told CNN.
The decision followed a previously unreleased statement in Peters’ clemency application, obtained by CNN from Polis’ office, in which Peters said for the first time since her 2024 conviction that she “made a mistake” and “misled” Colorado election officials.
Polis said in an interview Friday that he was cutting Peters’ prison sentence in half, reducing it to 4.5 years. That means she can be released in a month.
“I made a mistake four years ago,” Peters said in the statement released Friday. “I misled the Secretary of State when allowing a person to gain access to county voting equipment. That was wrong. Going forward, I will make sure that my actions always follow the law.”
Polis said he agrees with a recent appeals court ruling that found the trial judge improperly punished Peters for her protected speech about the 2020 election. Of course, he let the travesty continue for years.
“I hope that Democrats don’t sacrifice our deeply held belief in free speech because of political expediency or disregard for what people are saying,” Polis said. “There should be no consideration of what we say, how unpopular it is, how inaccurate it is in sentencing or in criminal proceedings.”
Last month, a state appeals court upheld Peters’ criminal convictions. However, it ordered the trial judge to re-sentence her, finding that he improperly based part of the punishment on Peters’ protected speech about elections, violating her First Amendment rights.
A date for a new sentencing hearing hadn’t been set yet. Peters was eligible for parole in 2028. CNN has reported that, even without clemency, Colorado law could have made Peters eligible to move into a halfway house or a similar arrangement as soon as this November with good behavior.
The sentence was extremely disproportionate to the crime. If you watched the trial, the judge appeared to have a vendetta. He seemed to be far-left. There are no repercussions for the judge.