Court orders re-sentencing for ex-Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, says her comments protected speech

A Colorado appeals court on Thursday ordered former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters be re-sentenced, as she serves a nearly nine-year prison sentence over her handling of election equipment while attempting to find proof of fraud in the 2020 election.

Colorado Court of Appeals judges upheld Peters' conviction, but said that a judge should not have considered her continued promotion of election fraud claims when he sentenced her in 2024, according to the Associated Press. The appeals court sent Peters’ case back to a lower court for a judge to issue a new sentence.

The 70-year-old Peters was found guilty of three counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one count each of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty, and failure to comply with the requirements of the secretary of state. She snuck in an outside computer expert to make a copy of her county’s election computer system during a software update.

The appeals court found that the sentence punished Peters for her speech regarding fraud claims in the 2020 election.

“For these reasons, we conclude that the trial court obviously erred by imposing sentence at least partially based on Peters’ protected speech,” the appeals court said in its ruling Thursday.

Colorado Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is running for governor, said in response to the ruling that the original sentence had been “fair and appropriate.”

“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,” Weiser said in a statement.

He noted that the appeals court affirmed President Trump’s attempt to pardon Peters was “meaningless” since presidential pardons don’t extend to state crimes.

Trump has pressured Colorado officials to release Peters.