(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The controversial Colorado sentence against Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk, has been overturned by an appeals court, in what her supporters described as a potential step toward her release.
The Colorado Court of Appeals, through a three-judge panel, ordered the trial court to re-evaluate her nine-year sentence because part of it relied on her constitutionally protected comments.
The appellate court, however, upheld her conviction.
Peters is currently in state prison after being prosecuted by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat, on several felony and misdemeanor charges related to her election-integrity efforts in 2021.
The appellate court blasted the trial court for relying on Peters’ comments during her sentencing hearing.
At the center of the appeal was the trial judge’s claim that Peters had “used and is still using your prior position in office to [peddle] a snake oil that’s been proven to be junk time and time again.”
The appellate court said Peters’ defense and comments about the election were protected by the Constitution and should not have been considered at sentencing.
“It is well settled that the First Amendment generally prohibits punishing someone for their protected speech,” the judges wrote.
They later added:
“Here, the trial court’s comments about Peters’s belief in the existence of 2020 election fraud went beyond relevant considerations for her sentencing. 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.”
While the ruling was met with some praise on social media, Peters’ defense attorney Peter Ticktin called it “terribly disappointing.”
“Unfortunately, the Colorado Court of Appeals just kicked the can down the road rather than to do the honest responsible thing and give her a new trial, after her kangaroo trial,” Ticktin wrote in a statement, according to The Colorado Sun.
“She remains in prison after 549 days,” he added.
Thursday’s decision comes after President Donald Trump issued a pardon for potential federal offenses committed by Peters and urged Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to do the same.
Polis said he would only grant a pardon if Peters showed remorse or apologized for what Democrat prosecutors claimed were crimes.
Trump has since threatened to withhold federal funding unless she is released.
Supporters note that Peters, a grandmother, remains the only person in prison for 2020-related election offenses.
