The appeals court ordered a judge to re-evaluate the punishment for the former Mesa County clerk

The Colorado Court of Appeals overturned Tina Peters’ prison sentence Thursday morning and ordered a lower court to re-evaluate her punishment.

The ruling by a three-judge panel upheld her conviction.

Peters, 70, was found guilty in 2024 of orchestrating a security breach of her county’s election system in 2021 in a failed attempt to find evidence of electronic vote manipulation. Her actions were rooted in conspiracies about the 2020 election.

Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison.

In a 77-page opinion, the appeals court panel said it reversed her sentence “because it was based in part on improper consideration of her exercise of her right to free speech.”

The judges wrote that the lower court imposed Peters’ sentence in part because Peters continued to spread her beliefs about election fraud, which the sentencing judge, 21st Judicial District Judge Matthew Barrett, noted were particularly harmful because of the position she held.

“The tenor of the court’s comments makes clear that it felt the sentence length was necessary, at least in part, to prevent her from continuing to espouse views the court deemed ‘damaging,’” the judges wrote.

When handing down the sentence, Barrett called Peters a “charlatan” who “had found a way to profit off of lies and would continue to do so if she remained out of prison.”

But the court failed to acknowledge, the judges wrote in their opinion, that Peters is no longer the Mesa County clerk and “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.”

Attorney General Phil Weiser, in a statement, called Peters’ original sentence fair and appropriate.

“Ms. Peters is in prison because of her own criminal conduct to prove false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 elections, and she has not shown any remorse for her actions,” Weiser said. “Whatever happens with her sentence, Tina Peters will always be a convicted felon who violated her duty as Mesa County clerk, put other lives at risk, and threatened our democracy. Nothing will remove that stain.”