Appeals Court Upholds Tina Peters Conviction — But Tosses 9-Year Sentence

 

What happened today: A unanimous three-judge Colorado Court of Appeals panel issued a landmark 78-page ruling in the case of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, upholding her felony convictions in full, while striking down her nine-year prison sentence on First Amendment grounds and ordering a lower court to resentence her. The decision is one of the most significant rulings yet in a case that has drawn national attention and direct White House intervention.

In the summer of 2021, Tina Peters was the elected Clerk and Recorder of Mesa County in Grand Junction, Colorado, the official responsible for overseeing local elections. Amid a wave of pressure from conservative constituents who questioned the integrity of voting machines following President Trump’s 2020 presidential loss, Peters took matters into her own hands.

During a routine Dominion Voting Systems software update, Peters secretly arranged for an outside operative, a man affiliated with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, to gain access to the secure Mesa County elections office. To get him in, Peters used the security badge of a local man she claimed to have hired. The operative made a complete copy of the county’s election computer server. Evidence that included photos and video of confidential voting system passwords subsequently appeared on social media and conservative websites.

Peters claimed the mission was to preserve election records and uncover potential fraud. Prosecutors said it was a deliberate, deceptive breach of secure government infrastructure that ultimately cost Mesa County over $1 million to remediate.

Peters became the first election official in the country to be criminally charged in connection with a security breach tied to the 2020 election denial movement. After a ten-day trial in August 2024 before a Mesa County jury, she was found guilty on seven counts.

In October 2024, Judge Matthew Barrett of the 21st Judicial District sentenced Peters to nine years in prison. His remarks from the bench were scathing, calling her a “charlatan” who had used her former office to “peddle snake oil” about rigged voting machines, and telling her plainly: “You are no hero.”

Peters appealed on multiple grounds, arguing her conviction was flawed and that her sentence was improperly harsh. The appeals court rejected every challenge to the conviction, finding the evidence more than sufficient on every count. It also dismissed her claims of immunity under the Supremacy Clause and confirmed that Trump’s presidential pardon has no legal effect on state charges.

The court found that Judge Barrett crossed a constitutional line by factoring Peters’ continued public statements about election fraud into the severity of her punishment. Because she is no longer serving as an election clerk, she can no longer engage in the conduct that led to her conviction, meaning, her ongoing speech about election fraud is simply speech, protected by the First Amendment regardless of its content or accuracy.

— Judge Ted Tow III, writing for the unanimous panel. 

“The trial court obviously erred by imposing sentence at least partially based on Peters’ protected speech,” Judge Tow wrote.

 

The nine-year sentence was thrown out and the case remanded to district court for resentencing, a distinction the court drew with precision: what she did remains fully prosecuted and convicted. In other words, only the punishment must be reconsidered.

The Peters case has become one of the most politically charged state criminal matters in the country. Since returning to the White House in January 2025, President Trump has repeatedly and publicly demanded that Colorado release her. In December, Trump issued Peters a presidential pardon, a gesture today’s ruling dismissed as legally meaningless, since presidential clemency power does not extend to state crimes.

The U.S. Department of Justice also took the extraordinary step of filing a brief supporting Peters’ bid for release on bond, and the federal Bureau of Prisons attempted to have her transferred to federal custody. Both efforts failed. A federal judge noted in recent months that the Trump administration’s moves to withhold federal funding and disaster relief from Colorado appeared to be closely timed with the president’s demands for her release.

Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, has publicly described the nine-year sentence as “unusual and harsh” for a first-time, non-violent offender and has signaled openness to clemency. The deadline for clemency applications is tomorrow, April 3.

Possible paths forward

If Peters accepts the conviction ruling, the case returns to the district court for a new sentence, this time without considering her speech. The District Attorney has indicated the court may re-impose the same length with corrected reasoning. Peters’ attorney has said he will seek credit for time already served (~540 days), which would mean immediate release.

If Peters does not concede the conviction ruling is correct, which observers consider likely, the case proceeds to the Colorado Supreme Court. The district court loses jurisdiction over resentencing until that process concludes, potentially keeping Peters in prison for months or years longer.

Governor Polis retains the power to commute Peters’ sentence or grant a pardon independent of the courts. He has been openly considering it, citing sentencing disparity, a former state senator convicted of the same felony charge received only probation. The clemency application deadline is April 3.

Today’s ruling settled the question definitively: Trump’s December 2024 pardon has no legal effect. The appeals court found no precedent for a presidential pardon of a state conviction, and declined to create one.

What today’s ruling makes clear is that the judicial process, whatever the political noise around it, is moving on its own terms. The conviction is solid. The sentence must be reconsidered.

The next chapter depends on decisions that Peters, her attorneys, and the Governor of Colorado will each have to make in the coming days.