Colorado Gov. Polis Commutes Tina Peters’ Sentence to Time Served

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has commuted the sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to time served, making her eligible for parole on June 1. Peters, 70, had been serving an eight-year-and-three-month sentence following her 2024 conviction. Her original mandatory release date was 2033, and she would have been eligible for parole in 2028.

Polis said he was cutting Peters’ prison sentence in half. “She committed a crime. She deserves to be a convicted felon,” Polis said. He stressed that the decision was not meant to mollify President Trump, who had repeatedly called for her release and issued a symbolic federal pardon for Peters in December.

Peters served as Mesa County Clerk during the 2020 presidential election. In 2021, she gave people affiliated with Mike Lindell unauthorized access to the election offices in Mesa County. A jury convicted her in 2024 of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, official misconduct, violation of duty, and failure to comply with secretary of state requirements.

She was sentenced on Oct. 3, 2024. By June 1 she will have spent more than 600 days incarcerated.

In her clemency application, Peters stated, “I made a mistake four years ago. I misled the secretary of state when allowing a person to gain access to county voting equipment. ” A state appeals court upheld Peters’ criminal convictions last month but ordered the trial judge to re-sentence her.

The court found that the judge had improperly based part of the punishment on Peters’ protected speech about the 2020 election, violating her First Amendment rights. Polis said he agrees with that ruling. “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.

Polis pointed out that the commutation is not a pardon because he believes she broke the law and wants her to live with that felony on her record. He said he focused on the merits of the case despite hearing from Trump privately in addition to the president’s public posts.

Peters’ legal team has maintained she was targeted. Her official website says she is the victim of “politically motivated” prosecutions. Until her clemency application, Peters had denied wrongdoing and maintained she was trying to preserve election records.