Gov. Polis grants clemency to Tina Peters, ending her 9-year sentence

Seventy-year-old Tina Peters, a nonviolent former county clerk, has been rotting in a Colorado prison, serving an outrageous nine-year sentence. Most leftists delighted in Peters’ suffering, branding her, among other things, an “insurrectionist.” One Democrat, however, saw this for the egregious wrong that it was and stopped it: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. Anyone who believes in the rule of law, regardless of political party, should thank him profusely for his courageous grant of clemency to Peters.

Peters believed, as did millions of Americans, that the 2020 election was rigged against President Donald Trump. As Mesa County clerk, Peters sought to prove that there were flaws in the electronic voting system under which the election had occurred. She provided secure information in the form of source code to an outside adviser as part of her efforts to demonstrate that the system was vulnerable and that election fraud had transpired. This conduct occurred after the election, and not one vote changed as a result. Peters never tried to alter any votes in any election.

Republican-in-name-only Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubenstein, Democrat Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Democrat Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser went after Peters with a vengeance. She faced a slew of felony charges and up to 18 years in prison — in effect a life sentence for someone her age — for her nonviolent conduct. A jury found her guilty on some charges but acquitted her of identity theft. The prosecution argued that Peters had stolen the identification badge of one of her employees; Peters, by contrast, alleged that the employee had been in on the plan. The jury rejected the prosecution’s allegation, meaning that Peters is not an identity thief. Then the real injustice began.

Mesa County District Judge Matthew Barrett is a terrible Colorado state trial judge. Unfortunately for Peters, Barrett presided over her trial. At sentencing, Barrett threw the book at her, sentencing her to nine years in prison. Nine years dwarfs the sentences that individuals who cast illegal votes receive. In those cases, illegal voters are canceling out the votes of lawful voters. Worse than the unconscionable length of the sentence for someone with no criminal history was Barrett’s reasoning. He harped on Peters’ statements about election fraud, branding her a “charlatan.” All of those statements were protected by the First Amendment. In other words, Barrett was punishing Peters for constitutionally protected speech. Even worse, Barrett made Peters serve part of her sentence in a county jail rather than immediately sending her to state prison. This vindictive act decreased the amount of good-time credit and prison services for which Peters would be eligible.

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Colorado courts sadly have been taken over by leftists. The Colorado Supreme Court, for example, illegally threw President Trump off the ballot in 2024, claiming he was an insurrectionist. A unanimous reversal by the U.S. Supreme Court swiftly put an end to that absurd ruling. Even a leftist appellate court panel, however, recognized the grave injustice in Peters’ case. The panel remanded the case for resentencing because of concern that Barrett unlawfully punished Peters for protected speech.

Meanwhile, President Trump and the Trump Justice Department were constantly fighting for Peters’ release. The president repeatedly raised the issue, even threatening to withhold funding from Colorado. The Trump Justice Department filed a statement of interest in Peters’ federal habeas corpus petition, an unusual but proper course of action in light of the outrageous facts of the case. The U.S. magistrate judge denied the petition, which sought Peters’ release on bail during the appellate process, but Peters’ allies did not give up, beseeching Gov. Polis to grant her clemency.

Gov. Polis faced massive pressure to deny clemency. Rubenstein ardently opposed it, as did other Democratic officials in Colorado. Colorado is a deep-blue state; indeed, Kamala Harris carried it in 2024 by a margin similar to Illinois. The politically easy course of action for Polis would have been to deny clemency. Doing so would have garnered him praise from Democrats who wanted Peters to remain behind bars for nearly a decade. A clemency denial surely would have enhanced his standing among those Democrats should he choose to run for president in 2028.

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Trump could have tried to pardon Peters, but it is virtually certain that the Supreme Court would have held the pardon invalid because a president can issue pardons only for federal offenses, not state crimes. In other words, for all practical purposes, Peters’ fate rested in Polis’ hands.

Polis did not take the easy road; he took the high road. He granted Peters’ clemency application, and she will go home on June 1 to spend time with her mother, who is nearly 100 years old. The clemency decision brought swift condemnation from Colorado leftists. Sen. Michael Bennet, for instance, “vehemently” disagreed with the decision, according to a post on X. The condemnation reverberated far outside Colorado. Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias posted on X: “Disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful.”

For her part, Peters expressed gratitude and pledged to lead a law-abiding life to honor the gift of mercy she received. Now Peters’ mother can pass with her daughter by her side instead of locked away in prison. The cell Peters occupied can go to someone who represents a true danger to Coloradans.

It is only fitting to end with a quote from Polis regarding his clemency decision: “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, or how they’re choosing to use their free speech.”

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This statement represents the views of old-school Democrats like Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. Tragically, the Polises and Fettermans are a dying breed in the Democratic Party. Many Democrats would be willing to sacrifice deeply held views on free speech if doing so gave them the satisfaction of watching a septuagenarian spend years in prison while her mother died alone and heartbroken.

Thank you, Gov. Polis, from this Colorado Republican who voted against you. You’ve earned my respect.

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