Governor Polis signals clemency for Tina Peters after months of silence on 4,201-signature petition

DENVER — Gov. Jared Polis posted on X on March 4 comparing the nine-year prison sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to the two-year probation given to former state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis for the same felony charge. He extended the deadline for clemency applications to April 3.

“It is not lost on me that she was convicted of the exact same felony charge as Tina Peters,” Polis wrote, referring to Lewis’s conviction for attempting to influence a public servant. “And yet Tina Peters, as a non-violent first time offender got a nine year sentence. Justice in Colorado and America needs to be applied evenly.”

The post came more than two months after Kim Monson delivered a petition with 4,201 signatures to the governor’s office calling for Peters’ release. Polis never responded.

A petition from all 50 states

Monson launched the petition on Dec. 8, 2025, calling on Polis to show “kindness, compassion, and mercy” by releasing Peters by Christmas Eve. Signatures came from every state and the District of Columbia. The petition closed at 9 a.m. on Dec. 22. That afternoon, Monson delivered it to the governor’s office, printed and notarized, bearing 4,201 signatures.

“We put together a petition, and I took it down to Jared Polis’ office, where 4,201 people from all over the country, every state and the District of Columbia, asked him to show some compassion and mercy and release her,” Monson said on The Kim Monson Show.

“And I never heard back from him,” Monson said. “But he said on Tuesday he might consider that.”

For more than two months, there was no acknowledgment, no response, no action. Then, on March 4, Polis publicly acknowledged what the petition had argued: the sentence was disproportionate.

Polis spokesperson Shelby Wieman said in a written statement that the governor “is not considering a pardon for Tina Peters, and is reviewing her application like anyone else applying for clemency.” The distinction matters. A commutation would reduce Peters’ sentence; a pardon would erase her conviction entirely.

Two convictions, two sentences

The sentencing disparity at the center of the clemency debate involves the same felony: attempting to influence a public servant, a Class 4 felony in Colorado punishable by up to six years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

Peters, the former Mesa County clerk and recorder, was convicted on Aug. 12, 2024, on seven counts, including three counts of attempting to influence a public servant. Judge Matthew Barrett sentenced her on Oct. 3, 2024, to nine years: 3.5 years for two counts of attempting to influence, another 3.5 years for a third count, and two years for the remaining charges. She was handcuffed and jailed immediately. Peters had no prior criminal record. She was 68 at the time of sentencing.

“You are as defiant a defendant as this court has ever seen,” Judge Barrett said at the sentencing hearing.

Republican DA Dan Rubinstein prosecuted the case, which stemmed from Peters allowing an unauthorized person affiliated with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to access Dominion voting machines and copy hard drives in Mesa County.

Lewis, a Democrat who represented Boulder County in the state Senate, was convicted on Jan. 28, 2026, on four felony charges: one count of attempting to influence a public servant and three counts of forgery. Her case involved fabricating letters from former aides to the Senate Ethics Committee during an investigation into her treatment of staff. On March 3, one day before Polis’s social media post, a Denver judge sentenced Lewis to two years of probation, 150 hours of community service, and a $3,000 fine.

“This case should send the message that elected officials will be held accountable when they break the law,” Denver DA John Walsh said in a statement.

The cases differ in scope and circumstance. Peters’ convictions involved election equipment; Lewis’s involved forged letters to an ethics committee. But both women were convicted of the same felony, and the sentencing gap is stark: nine years in prison versus two years of probation.

Susan Kochevar, a Colorado entrepreneur and regular guest on The Kim Monson Show, put it simply: “Tina Peters was convicted of something that a state legislator was recently convicted of, and that lady, the state legislator, just received probation.”

DA Rubinstein responded to the comparison in a statement: “No two crimes and no two defendants are the same. While the governor has the legal authority to modify that sentence, doing so here would be a gross injustice to the affected citizens I represent.”

Secretary of State Jena Griswold also pushed back. “It is not accurate to suggest that Peters’ and Sonya Jaquez Lewis’ actions or impacts are the same,” Griswold said. “Peters organized the breach of the election equipment, broke the public trust and attacked the very foundations of our democratic process.”

A governor who has granted clemency before

Polis has pardoned or commuted sentences every year since taking office in 2019. His December 2024 round included 22 pardons and four commutations.

The commutations included two people convicted of first-degree murder. Rudy A. Giron fatally shot Michael Sanchez during a drive-by attack over a stolen necklace in 1994; Polis commuted his life-without-parole sentence to parole-eligible in 2033. Ronald J. Janoushek murdered his girlfriend Rose Marie Jenkins in a bar parking lot in 1993; Polis commuted his life-without-parole sentence to the same parole date.

The commutations also included Travis Colvin, who was serving a 154-year sentence for sexual assault, attempted murder, motor vehicle theft, robbery, and assault. Polis made him parole-eligible in 2028. Victor Clark received a commutation of his 66-year sentence for aggravated robbery and tampering with a witness.

In 2021, Polis granted 1,351 pardons for marijuana possession convictions. In 2023, he issued 21 pardons and commuted seven sentences.

Peters is a 70-year-old nonviolent first offender.

Then came 2025. For the first time in his tenure, Polis issued zero year-end clemency grants, according to the Denver Post. The political pressure surrounding Peters appeared to freeze the entire process. No one received clemency that December; not Peters, not anyone.

Maximum security for a nonviolent offender

Peters is held at La Vista Correctional Facility, a maximum-security women’s prison in Pueblo. Colorado does not operate a minimum-security facility for women, meaning Peters was placed in the state’s most restrictive environment regardless of her offense level.

“We don’t have minimum security prisons in Colorado for women,” Monson said on the show. “And so she’s in a maximum security facility with hardened criminals. I don’t think she had even had a traffic ticket before this.”

Kochevar described conditions at the facility: “Tina got a very harsh sentence and she’s been in this maximum security prison where she’s been mistreated and she’s been attacked by a woman, and interestingly the woman who attacked Tina on a camera in the prison has been released. And meanwhile Tina is still sitting in the maximum security prison.”

Monson noted that the woman who attacked Peters had been incarcerated for stabbing her boyfriend. That inmate has since been released while Peters remains behind bars.

Kim Monson applied to visit Peters at La Vista. She received no response. Elected representatives were denied access to Peters for months.

Peters is a Gold Star mother; her son died during military service. She is a cancer survivor. She is 70 years old. Her mother is 97.

The opposition

AG Phil Weiser, who is running for governor, issued a statement on March 5 opposing clemency. “Reducing the sentence of convicted former clerk Tina Peters for tampering with election equipment would be a grave miscarriage of justice and dangerous for free and fair elections,” Weiser said.

Not a single Democratic member of the Colorado General Assembly said Polis should reduce Peters’ sentence, according to the Colorado Sun. The Sun reported that many used expletives in saying no.

“I think it’s a ridiculous idea. What is he thinking?” said Rep. Karen McCormick, D-Longmont.

Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, said: “Clemency is for accountability and rehabilitation, not entitlement. Peters refuses to take accountability and continues to push election-denial conspiracy theories. She is not a clemency case, and this shouldn’t be a hard call.”

DA Rubinstein, the Republican who prosecuted Peters, opposes clemency. County election clerks of both parties have urged Polis not to act. Secretary of State Griswold opposes it.

The Colorado Court of Appeals is actively reviewing Peters’ sentence. A panel expressed skepticism about how the sentence was determined during a January hearing. A ruling is expected in the coming weeks. Polis may be waiting for that decision before acting. His term ends in early 2027. The clemency deadline is April 3.