Colorado court throws out election denier Tina Peters' 9-year sentence for tampering with election equipment

Benedict Arnold would’ve made out like a bandit if he was alive today.

What does her right to free speech have to do with anything? She is unrepentant about what she did and to.my knowledge judges can factor in that in their sentencing.

>So it cannot be said that the lengthy prison sentence was for specific deterrence.  I‘m sorry, but this reasoning is bullshit. Deterrence is about preventing other people from doing the crime. It doesn’t matter that she doesn’t have the job anymore.

Zero consequences for Republicans as normal.

Clickbait title. The appeals court upheld her felony and misdemeanor convictions; however they said she must be re-sentenced without the trial judge including her election-denying comments as part of the reasoning for the sentence, since they are protected by free speech.

Wait are you telling me that the Republican's screaming about voter fraud are the ones commiting voter fraud? That every accusation is a confession from these fascist fucks?

The judge(s) who wrote this opinion for the appeals court are morons and too dumb to be sitting judges. Their entire brief is predicated on the fact that she can no longer engage in fraud because she's no longer in a position of power. If that's the case then every bank robber, rapist or CEO ever convicted of fraud should have their sentence overturned solely on the basis that being in prision makes engaging in such fraud more difficult (even if they could engage in different kinds of fraud or crime). What's the point of even convicting someone of a crime if they can't be punished because their conviction in some way prevents them from continuing to engage in the same crime?

Is the black woman who didn’t know she couldn’t vote still in jail?

Yo, f*** IQ45 and the Republicans for bitching non-stop about election integrity and *also* trying to get this lady off the hook because she was on their side.

I'm about to stop paying taxes and following laws that inconvenience me. Why the f*** should I have to?

People aren't reading (shocking) the 9 year conviction was thrown out but shes still convicted and just needs to be resentenced. She hasn't been let off the hook.

Shame 9n this Colorado Court. Peters deserves the full 9 years

Jesus Christ, our justice system is a goddamn disgrace

Ok so the lower court should give her 8 years then lol

more and more i’m convinced someone went back in time and stepped on a butterfly

Great re-sentence her for breaking the law. I don’t care what she believes.

Courts regularly, REGULARLY consider whether or not someone is remorseful of their actions when sentencing them. So her continuing to his espouse the lies would fit in the situation and be quite relevant to her sentencing

Considering the track record of her fellow MAGAs, she will probably just get caught with CSAM in a couple of years and go back to prison again.

Oh, so she wasn’t remorseful at all about what she did, and she made that well known. Quite common for judges to consider this during sentencing—so moving forward will it just be free speech when someone tells the judge they don’t at all regret actually committing x crime?

Over and above any criminal sentence, I've long thought that permanent disenfranchisement ought to be a standard minimum penalty for any willful or even grossly negligent corruption of the vote.

“But the court failed to acknowledge that Peters is no longer the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder," they continued. "She is no longer in a position to engage in the conduct that led to her conviction. So it cannot be said that the lengthy prison sentence was for specific deterrence.” So… no giving bigger sentences to murderers because they are now in jail and don’t need to be deterred from making more murders. No need for deterrence against fraud, or r***, or anything - as people will all be now away from their ability to commit such naughty actions, so therefore no increase in sentences for deterrence purposes are needed. America, you are all kinds of screwed up - deterrence is to deter not just the criminal that is caught, but perhaps more importantly, it is to deter others, so they aren’t led down the same inane path.

The Colorado court system seems about as useless as the Colorado Police Departments.

From the headline, that’s just the sentence not the conviction. She hasn’t gotten away with anything yet.

Still a b**** ass felon, just gonna get a different punishment.

What a corrupt system. Don’t worry if you’re rich it’s smooth sailing. If you’re poor it’s maximum penalty

No justice in America anymore. It's all a farce.

Resentence her with the same sentence minus a day

I thought the judge can take into account if a defendant has no remorse? Seems like saying you still don’t believe the facts after a trial shows you wrong is just being obstinate

>“The trial court’s comments about Peters’s belief in the existence of 2020 election fraud went beyond relevant considerations for her sentencing,” a three-judge panel wrote in a 77-page opinion that also upheld her conviction on charges including official misconduct in connection with a security breach of Mesa County’s voting system >"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. Indeed, under these circumstances, just as her purported beliefs underlying her motive for her actions were not relevant to her defense, the trial court should not have considered those beliefs relevant when imposing sentence." >”The state appeals court directed the trial court judge, Matthew Branch, to resentence Peters without consideration of her comments on the 2020 election Tldr: try again but do it right this time (oh she's going to jail) also: F*** CLICKBAIT

The specific deterrence logic doesn't make sense. Why does it matter that she can't engage in exactly the same criminal activity as before?  If someone is convicted of murder using a firearm and continues to insist that they were right to commit murder, does that get excluded from sentencing because as a convicted felon they won't be allowed to own a firearm in the future?

They should resentence her to twenty years and make no mention of her 'beliefs' in the reasoning.

Every single one of these traitors is going to get away with it.

isn't lack of remorse often factored into sentencing?

"Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law". Is this not a thing anymore?

The appeals court asked the judge to re-evaluate her sentence without taking into account her lack of remorse. Here's hoping he increases the sentence.

She's being resentenced not being let go. She's still guilty,  but will have a new sentence.  It would be funny if it's for longer, but I don't have the faith for that. She hasn't been a model prisoner. I think she got in a fight with another inmate and had to be put in solitary 

It would be pretty funny if she get resentenced and it’s like 20 years this time.

The lower court has to re-sentence her, so there's still hope for some justice.

Lower her sentence from 9 years to 107 months

So we are allowed to say we aren't sorry and would absolutely do it again and have that not effect sentencing!!?? Wow

So still guilty but the appeals court is saying that the sentence was based on her beliefs as opposed to her actual crime. I can only hope that the judge who did the original sentencing says you know what you're right - instead of 9 years give her 29 years

To be clear, her conviction is upheld but the case is getting sent back to the trial court to re-sentence her. The Colorado Court of Appeals' argument is that her sentence was made harsher because of her belief that '20 was stolen, not because of any specific offense -- That her 1A Rights were violated because of that, and that she needs to be sentenced again without factoring in her misguided beliefs. So, y'know, she's still gonna get time, but maybe not as much. Or it at least needs to be a sentence consistent with an official committing fraud.

wtf, I watched what this old c*** did. She 100% deserves to be in jail.

We are a lawless nation with demons at the wheel.

What happened to Colorado? I thought it was like California 2.0, but now it looks like Texas 2.0.

Investigate the Appeals Court.

So are they going to go back and reevaluate every case where remorse was factored into the sentencing?

Her conviction still stands. It's just that her sentence may be reduced

“The trial court’s comments about Peters’s belief in the existence of 2020 election fraud went beyond relevant considerations for her sentencing,” It was a 1st amendment violation because they used her beliefs in election fraud in determining sentencing. That's literally it. It's like saying courts can sentence religious groups because of their beliefs. It's just not part of the reasoning for sentencing. It sounds semantic, but it's essential to protecting people's beliefs regardless how they may have caused a person to commit a crime. Sentence the crime, not the thoughts. They should absolutely re-sentence her to at least the 9 years sentenced previously.

She is lucky this didn't happen in a state with backbone

Here is a [breakdown](https://coloradosun.com/2024/10/03/tina-peters-election-security-trial-sentenced/) of her sentencing and the case. I've highlighted some of the interesting parts: #Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters sentenced to 9 years in prison for role in 2021 breach of election system >GRAND JUNCTION — Former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters was sentenced Thursday to nine years behind bars by a judge who labeled her a “charlatan” for her role in a 2021 breach of her own county’s election system. >Peters will serve 60 days to six months in the Mesa County jail before she is transferred to the state Department of Corrections. >Peters was handcuffed and taken to jail immediately after she was sentenced. >**As deputies removed her from the courtroom, Peters at the last instant raised her shackled hands, fluttered a wave and a blew a kiss to her supporters in the packed courtroom.** >Twenty-first Judicial District Judge Matthew Barrett handed down the sentence after saying Peters had found a way to profit off of lies and would continue to do so if she remained out of prison. >**“Your lies are well-documented and these convictions are serious,” he said. “I am convinced you would do it all over again. You are as defiant a defendant as this court has ever seen.”** >Based on the seriousness of her crimes and the damage they caused to trust in voting nationwide “prison is the only place” for Peters, Barrett said. He added that the damage she caused is “unmeasurable.” >Peters, 68, was convicted Aug. 12 of **three counts of attempting to influence a public official; conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation; official misconduct; violation of duty; and failure to comply with an order of the Secretary of State.** >The jury acquitted Peters of three counts: conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, criminal impersonation and identity theft. >**Peters did not testify during her trial, but in a rambling statement before sentencing, she used her time to lay out her belief that elections are being stolen as part of a vast national conspiracy. Her garbled defense sounded like the many presentations she had made on far-right, election-denier podcasts. >Barrett stopped her at one point telling her, “this is completely irrelevant.” He had told her four attorneys that numerous times during her trial when they tried to raise issues of voter fraud. >Barrett also called out Peters for lying when she demonstrated her infamous videotaped attempt to kick a police officer in 2022. That incident had nothing to do with her trial, but she included it in a litany of lies she said were part of the case against her. >She bent over and kicked a leg in the air to show how having her arm pulled had caused that involuntary movement. Barrett called that assertion “preposterous.” There was tittering throughout the courtroom over her demonstration.** >**Peters veered from trying to settle these old scores to making bids for sympathy by invoking the memory of her Navy Seal son who died in a parachute accident during a military demonstration when Peters was running for office. She spoke about her father dying while she was in jail and her 95-year-old mother needing her now. She accused 21st District Attorney Dan Rubinstein of stealing her late husband by convincing him to file for divorce. Rubinstein has denied having anything to do with her divorce.** #Peters bid for leniency: “I have lived my life with faith and honesty” >At one point in her statement, Peters tearfully begged the judge for mercy. >**“Your honor, I don’t deserve to go into a prison where other people have committed heinous crimes,” she said. “I’m not a criminal. I have lived my life with faith and honesty.”** >Peters offered the possibility of going to a faith-based program in northern California where she would work to help people. >A minister from the Church of Glad Tidings who identified himself as Pastor Dave Bryan had spoken in her defense. He told Barrett that he could “take this big hairball” from Colorado by taking Peters out of the state to serve probation. >“It is my observation that a storm is just getting started with this trial,” he said. “Tina Peters has learned her lesson and will not be involved in Colorado politics anymore.” He made that statement before Peters said during her statement that officials have failed to understand that the election systems are fraudulent. >Peters told Judge Barrett that **prison would be difficult for her because she needs to sleep on a magnetic mattress for health problems including fibromyalgia and a previous bout of lung cancer that left her short of breath at times.** (Personal note - *this* is her medical necessity?! Lmao magnetic mattresses are pseudoscience woo woo snake oil bs. Gtfo with that.) >Those who spoke in Peters’ defense included Douglas Frank, who identified himself as a Ph.D. physicist who has been “modeling elections” since he was a teenager. >Frank was at the crux of Peters’ criminal saga when it began in 2021. He came to Mesa County after she began questioning the results of a Grand Junction municipal election. **Voters had rejected a slate of right-wing candidates, and Peters said at the time she didn’t think that was possible.** >She agreed to a plan hatched with Frank and other national-level election fraud conspiracy theorists who wanted to try to show that Dominion Voting Systems ballot-counting equipment fraudulently tallied votes. They needed a county clerk who would give them access to a Dominion system and Peters accommodated them. >“They found an easy mark,” testified Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association who spoke for the prosecution Thursday. >**Crane pointed out that Peters never bothered to finish her county clerk credentialing and she left a training session for new clerks early. He said he doesn’t believe she understood the system that she sought to undermine.** >**He said while her actions have caused other clerks and election officials around the state to receive death threats, “she has benefited from lies and willful ignorance.”** He said her lies have been turned into a means of income for her as she shills for donations on right-wing podcasts. #“A tool rather than a victim” >Frank also participates in those podcasts. He came to Mesa County at the invitation of Peters and her friend, Sherronna Bishop, who was not an elected official and didn’t live in Mesa County. Bishop was a Silt makeup artist who had served as U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s campaign manager before the two had a falling out. >Bishop then became involved with people who believe that elections are fraudulent. >**Frank and Bishop offered Peters a way to prove, prior to the 2022 mid-term election, that Mesa County’s election system was capable of switching votes.** >**They hired Conan Hayes, a former pro surfer from California who Frank said during the sentencing was a “federally licensed, white-hat hacker.” Hayes traveled to Grand Junction to copy the voting system hard drive. Hayes’ assignment was to copy the confidential information before and after a standard upgrade to the system, called a trusted build. Trusted builds are carried out with the oversight of the Secretary of State’s Office prior to elections.** >To get Hayes into the secure part of the clerk’s office and into the trusted build, Peters first had to carry out an elaborate scheme so he would have the necessary credentials. >Trial testimony had laid out the details of that scheme. **Peters pretended to hire a local man, Gerald Wood, as a computer consultant for the elections office. Peters obtained credentials for Wood by skipping some of the steps normally taken for a new hire. She told different parties involved in the elections division that he was either a state employee, a contractor or a new employee in the motor vehicle division.** >**Wood’s badge was then used by Hayes** to access the room where the “brains” of the voting system are located and where **Peters had ordered security cameras to be turned off prior to the breach.** Hayes made copies of the hard drive prior to the trusted build. He then attended the trusted build with representatives of Dominion and the Secretary of State’s Office who had been told he was a county employee. >Wood and his wife, Wendy Wood, spoke at the sentencing for the prosecution, laying out how Peters’ actions and lies had damaged their lives. Wendy Wood cried as she told the judge that Peters and her co-conspirators had viewed her husband as “a tool rather than a victim.” #Confidential info posted to websites trafficking in political conspiracy theories >**The confidential information that Hayes obtained from the voting system was unveiled during an election-conspiracy conference in South Dakota put on by MyPillow CEO and election-denier Mike Lindell. Lindell had flown Peters and some of her fellow conspiracy theorists to the conference. He promised that he had proof of election fraud. No proof was presented.** >But the information stolen from Mesa County’s voting system turned up on right-wing conspiracy websites where it set off alarm bells with state and county election officials. Peters asserted during her sentencing that she had not approved that release. >**None of the information revealed in the breach was ever used to prove election fraud. But in the national election-conspiracy world it was held up as the Holy Grail that showed Dominion Voting Systems was monkeying with election results. That assertion was based on the fact that some files had been removed from the system — a standard method of doing an upgrade that includes installing new files, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.**

She is simply going to get a lesser sentence. She doesn't get to go free.The appeals court's argument that you cannot use her statements denying the election results to increase her sentence due to free speech has validity. And better this than she gets clemency from Polis. It's just that in a country where less wealthy/connected people get lengthy sentences it feels scummy when someone like this appears to be getting treated with kid gloves.

If the judge has any balls, he resentences here to the same 9 years and just writes about why more effectively.

I hope they give her ten years at the resentencing.

> the court failed to acknowledge that Peters is no longer the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder," they continued. "She is no longer in a position to engage in the conduct that led to her conviction. So it cannot be said that the lengthy prison sentence was for specific deterrence. To the contrary, the sentence punished Peters for her persistence in espousing her beliefs regarding the integrity of the 2020 election. So because she no longer holds her position she’s not liable? WTF??

I'm just going to start doing whatever I want.

Oh laws where art tho

Did the court just elevate election denied to the level of religion?

Is it possible that in resentencing, she gets the full 6 years per count?

She wasn't convicted of having feelings about the election, she was convicted for aiding and abetting the theft of election equipment. As evidenced by the charges against her. She was sentenced harshly because she refused to admit her role in those things. Judges being sober isn't about them not being blasted outta their t*** on the bench. It's about having impeccable reasoning and unimpeachable ethics.

Perfect, one more bat shit crazy person on the streets

Punish the innocent and free the wicked. Good to finally see the truth out in the open for everyond

This is a correct decision if you read in. It does not endorse, condone, or exonerate the criminal activity. It doesn’t overturn the conviction. It correctly tells a judge to apply law equally and to stay within the sentencing statute. It’s unpopular because the accused is a fuckhead, but the sentence can still be constitutional so long as you, as a judge, actually apply sentencing considerations. I practice in Colorado and this is weirdly a breath of fresh air. Judges need to be reminded as they sentence or sentence people on a whim that their authority isn’t limitless, but rather based in legal considerations. I predict she gets the same sentence and the judge will appropriately apply relevant law this time

Well, I've just lost faith in our justice system. Guess the rule of law doesn't exist. I for one am going to write a letter to the senator and governor about my disappointment.

Don't judges routinely take lack of remorse into consideration with sentencing? Is this not the same thing?

What a miscarriage of justice.

Jesus Christ. What a f****** joke.

They better sentence her to even longer.

Her sentence should have been longer than 9 years in the first place.

How do they keep getting away with this shit?

She is convicted felon like trump. next.

They need to double it…

Remember, if you have enough money, power, or influence, the law simply won’t apply to you.

Hmm, the court upheld the “conviction on charges including official misconduct in connection with a security breach of Mesa County’s voting system.” That is good. The court instead found that the 9 year prison sentence was, at least in part, based on her continued belief - and statements - that the election was tainted with fraud. Their reasoning being that she is no longer the clerk and not in an official position that would allow her to act on her beliefs. Personally, I would counter that her continued beliefs shows that she is unrepentant of her criminal offenses. Unrepentance has long been an acceptable factor to consider when it comes to determining the severity and length of sentence. Therefore, I can see a path forward where the resentencing is similar to the original. It is also noteworthy that the appeals court als ruled that Trump’s pardon “has no impact on Peters’s state law offenses.” This is important and yet another instance of Trump losing in court.

She will be resentenced by lower court, according to Appeal.

>The judges wrote that it was “apparent” the lower court imposed the sentence it did because Peters continued to espouse election denying views. >The state appeals court directed the trial court judge, Matthew Branch, to resentence Peters without consideration of her comments on the 2020 election. So she'll still be headed back in there, but for a shorter duration.

It’s a resentencing. The sentence included too much language about why it was dangerous to be an election denier. And since you can say anything they’re saying you gotta do a redo on sentencing. I’m sure they were mentioning it originally as a yelling fire in a crowded theater thing, where your first amendment rights stop. But we’ll see. They could just give the same sentence and just not mention the same reasoning.

You get punished for breaking the law. Just because you aren't involved in elections anymore doesn't mean that it is OK that you did election crimes in the past.

Another of trump’s hacks escaping punishment. Beyond pathetic!

I hope that she never has a good day. Her coffee, cold and incorrect. The bathroom, out of toilet paper when she has the shits. If I was working any, and I mean ANY, type of service job, any time I see these people, I'd make sure a happy accident happens.

Let's make sure no one learns their lesson when they break the law. We sure are great again!

Misleading headline. Relevant quote from the article: >The state appeals court directed the trial court judge, Matthew Branch, to resentence Peters without consideration of her comments on the 2020 election. They did not throw out her convictions and they did not remove her sentence. They ordered the original judge on the case to reconsider her sentence length, but there is nothing preventing that judge from upholding the same sentence.

Republicans almost exclusively have been the ones to actually cheat in the election cycle and it’s not even close. Trump is gearing up the have ice at polling places, is working to restrict mail movement for mail ballots, and his goons are working to redistrict what they can to keep power. These people are held to the lowest standard and demand other be held to higher standards. It’s all bs. Conservatives ideology has been co-opted by greedy people and because conservatism shuts down questions little to no accountability come from inside the house.

4 more years! I think they are about that.

I mean anyone that helped Trump and faced consequences will be heavily rewarded now.

Do they still do public hangings in the usa?

I'm done being even handed. F*** this c*** and all these hypocritical d***** canoes.

She did it. Tampering with voting machines. They threw it out over 'free speech'? You country sucks big balls.

Are we going to also resentence every case where a judge used some amount of discretion? This seems slightly dubious and politically motivated. Sentences can vary depending on whether a judge thinks someone will reoffend or not. This has been the case forever and other than political reasons I don't see how this case is much different.

And this is why we have zero accountability in America now. No one serves any time. No one is afraid of going to jail for meddling with democracy.

> “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. Indeed, under these circumstances, just as her purported beliefs underlying her motive for her actions were not relevant to her defense, the trial court should not have considered those beliefs relevant when imposing sentence.” This is some real lawyer brain bullshit. You'll never see it be a factor as to whether someone committing terrorist acts really believes their bullshit and no court would be expected to bow down to the reasons the terrorist has for doing the shit they do under the First Amendment. Hopefully the court imposes something like an 8 year sentence now.

Disgusting. The way they parade their convicts and out the other side of their mouths preach righteousness. These people are making me have feelings I’ve never had before when I see our Stars and Stripes.

If a Latino person did this they would not overturn the sentence.  Part of the reason America is in the state it's in is because people like Tina Peters never face serious repercussions for their actions. 

Amazing what one can get away with when the spoiled brat in the white house throws his temper tantrums!

>pleased they rejected President Trump’s pardon, which has no effect on state crimes. The Grand Ol Pedophiles are just throwing shit at the wall. Eventually some evil deed they try will succeed. Failing to steal the 2020 election in broad daylight and facing no repercussions means they will interfere in elections from now on.