Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was released from prison June 1 after serving less than two years of a nine-year sentence tied to her actions during a 2021 election software update.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Former Colorado election clerk Tina Peters was released from prison June 1 after Gov. Jared Polis commuted her sentence in a state-level criminal case involving election software access in Mesa County.
Peters, who had been serving a nine-year sentence, was freed less than two years after her incarceration began. She spoke with Steve Bannon shortly after her release and said she remained focused on challenging the case against her.
“It’s been quite the ordeal, but I really want to thank God for His faithfulness and for getting me through it,” Peters said.
“I still have a fight to clear my name and bring out the truth of why they came after me the way they did,” she added.
President Donald Trump issued Peters a pardon in December, but a court later ruled that the pardon did not apply because her convictions were under Colorado law. Authority over state-level clemency remained with Colorado’s governor.
Polis did not pardon Peters. Instead, he commuted her sentence May 15, making her release possible. In his clemency letter, Polis said Peters deserved prison time but found the length of the sentence excessive for the circumstances.
The governor said nine years was “an extremely unusual and lengthy sentence for a first time offender who committed nonviolent crimes.”
Peters was convicted over conduct tied to a 2021 election software update. Prosecutors said she falsely represented Gerald Wood as a state employee so he could receive security credentials and observe the update. Wood was not a government employee; he was part of a group of private citizens concerned about election fraud.
Peters then gave the credentials to software technician Conan Hayes, who used Wood’s identity to witness the update. Hayes also copied the election software server before and after the update. State authorities opened an investigation after data from those copies appeared online.
A jury convicted Peters in 2024 on several charges, including “three counts of attempt to influence a public servant and one count each of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, violation of duty, [and] first degree official misconduct.”
The Colorado Court of Appeals upheld Peters’s conviction April 2 but ordered resentencing after finding that the trial judge improperly considered her views about the 2020 election when imposing punishment.
During sentencing, Mesa County Judge Matthew Barrett sharply criticized Peters.
“There are many things in my mind that are crystal clear about this case. You are no hero,” Barrett said. “You abused your position and you’re a charlatan who used, and is still using, your prior position in office to [peddle] a snake oil that’s been proven to be junk time and time again. In your world, it’s all about you.”
The appeals court found that those remarks effectively punished Peters for speech protected by the First Amendment.
“Her offense was not her belief, however misguided the trial court deemed it to be, in the existence of such election fraud; it was her deceitful actions in her attempt to gather evidence of such fraud,” the appeals opinion stated.
Peters’s release follows the commutation of her sentence, while her conviction remains upheld pending resentencing.
Original article
Comments