The Colorado Court of Appeals overturned Tina Peters’ prison sentence Thursday morning and ordered a lower court to re-evaluate her punishment.
The ruling by a three-judge panel upheld her conviction.
Peters, 70, was found guilty in 2024 of orchestrating a security breach of her county’s election system in 2021 in a failed attempt to find evidence of electronic vote manipulation. Her actions were rooted in conspiracies about the 2020 election.
Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison.
In a 77-page opinion, the appeals court panel said it reversed her sentence “because it was based in part on improper consideration of her exercise of her right to free speech.”
The judges wrote that the lower court imposed Peters’ sentence in part because Peters continued to spread her beliefs about election fraud, which the sentencing judge, 21st Judicial District Judge Matthew Barrett, noted were particularly harmful because of the position she held.
“The tenor of the court’s comments makes clear that it felt the sentence length was necessary, at least in part, to prevent her from continuing to espouse views the court deemed ‘damaging,’” the judges wrote.
When handing down the sentence, Barrett called Peters a “charlatan” who “had found a way to profit off of lies and would continue to do so if she remained out of prison.”
But the court failed to acknowledge, the judges wrote in their opinion, that Peters is no longer the Mesa County clerk and “no longer in a position to engage in the conduct that led to her conviction.”
“So it cannot be said that the lengthy prison sentence was for specific deterrence. To the contrary, the sentence punished Peters for her persistence in espousing her beliefs regarding the integrity of the 2020 election.”
Attorney General Phil Weiser, in a statement, called Peters’ original sentence fair and appropriate.
“Ms. Peters is in prison because of her own criminal conduct to prove false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 elections, and she has not shown any remorse for her actions,” Weiser said. “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.”
Peters’ attorney Peter Ticktin called the appeals court’s decision “terribly disappointing.”
“Unfortunately, the Colorado Court of Appeals just kicked the can down the road rather than to do the honest responsible thing and give her a new trial, after her kangaroo trial,” Ticktin said in an email. “She remains in prison after 549 days.”
Dan Rubinstein, 21st Judicial District Attorney, said the decision underscored the “strength and integrity” of the judicial process by “carefully” reviewing nine claims of error during the grand jury process, trial and sentencing, and found no errors in the court proceedings leading up to her conviction.
“The court concluded that the trial was fair, the defendant’s rights were fully protected, and the evidence was sufficient to support the jury’s verdicts which were affirmed in full,” Rubenstein said in a statement.
Unless Peters accepts the Court of Appeals ruling and accepts that there was no error in her convictions, the case will likely head to Colorado Supreme Court, Rubinstein said.
“Both parties have already had a full and fair opportunity to present their positions on sentencing and once jurisdiction returns, I anticipate the trial court will issue a new sentencing order, potentially affirming the prior sentence length, with findings consistent with the appellate court’s guidance,” he said.
The decision comes after President Donald Trump demanded that Gov. Jared Polis pardon Peters. The president threatened Colorado with the loss of federal funding if the state does not release her and lobbed personal insults at the governor in the process.
Peters continues to argue that she did nothing wrong when she helped an unauthorized person use someone else’s identity to access her office’s election equipment. Her conviction turned her into an icon among election conspiracy theorists, who believe that election equipment makers conspired with Democrats to sway elections, none of which have been upheld in court. Peters has been embraced by national figures including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.
Trump issued a symbolic pardon of Peters last year, but because she was convicted of state crimes in a state court and sentenced by a state judge, the pardon had no effect.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said Thursday she appreciated the court’s decision to reject Trump’s “unlawful attempt to pardon her” so that Peters faces accountability for the security breach.
“Her actions have been repeatedly used to spread conspiracy theories, amplify falsehoods, and fuel dangerous election lies,” Griswold said in a statement. “Peters should not receive any special treatment as the District Court considers re-sentencing.”
Polis has several times hinted that he would grant Peters’ clemency petition, comparing her sentence to that handed down for former state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, who received probation and community service after being convicted of forgery and attempting to influence a public servant during a Senate ethics inquiry.
Last month, UCAR, the consortium of 129 universities and colleges that contracts to run the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, sued to stop the selloff of the agency ordered by Trump. The lawsuit cited the Peters’ case, saying the climate and weather research organization was targeted because Colorado refuses to give up mail-in voting and because the state has declined to release Peters from La Vista Correctional Facility, a medium-security women’s prison in Pueblo.