A Tale of Two Sentences: Convictions of Tina Peters vs. a Former State Senator and the Unequal Application of Justice – Gov. Polis Weighs In
Last week, a former state senator in Colorado was sentenced following a conviction for influencing a public servant (C.R.S. 18-8-306) and three counts of forgery. The former charge may sound familiar. It is the same charge that was used against former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters in 2024.
Former State Senator Sonya Jacquez Lewis was convicted of the four counts in a Denver District Court in January and sentenced on February 27th.
During a legislative ethics investigation, then-Senator Lewis submitted forged letters of support “written by former aides to refute allegations that Lewis was mistreating her staff” to the Colorado Senate Committee on Ethics, according to a press release from John Walsh, Denver’s District Attorney.
Charging Discrepancies
Lewis submitted three forged letters to a five-member Colorado Senate Ethics Committee panel. Rather than charging her with a felony for each forged letter or each member she aimed to influence, prosecutors pursued just one count of attempting to influence a public servant (alongside three forgery counts).
Tina Peters, convicted under the same statute (C.R.S. 18-8-306), made one misrepresentation to three public servants. Unlike Lewis, she faced—and was convicted on—a separate felony count for each public servant influenced, despite the identical misrepresentation.
Lewis’s three misrepresentations targeted five public servants but yielded only one influencing conviction. Peters’s single misrepresentation of three led to three counts, highlighting stark differences in charging decisions.
Sentencing Discrepancies
There is also a stark difference in how each individual was convicted of their respective crimes.
Walsh stated that Lewis “will now pay a price for behavior that simply cannot and will not be tolerated in our community.” That price? Two years of probation, 150 hours of community service, and a $3,000 fine. The fine will be waived if she completes an additional 100 hours of community service.
Peters, however, was sentenced to eight years and three months for those felony convictions and was denied bond pending her appeal. The court also fined her $10,750.
Lewis’s charges stem from her attempt to deceive a committee to maintain her position in government, whereas Peters believed she was doing her job as an elected official to ensure the records in her custody were maintained.
Lewis is a Democrat in a state in which her party controls all three branches of government. Peters is a Republican.
In an article titled “Same Statute, Different Outcomes”, Colorado-based journalist Ashe Epp writes:
Colorado Appellate precedent — particularly People v. Knox (2019 COA 152) — permits multiple convictions under C.R.S. 18-8-306 when the conduct reflects separate “volitional departures,” such as distinct communications at different times. There is no statutory specification or controlling Colorado Supreme Court decision that defines the unit of prosecution under that influence statute. It’s a matter of prosecutorial discretion.
In Jaquez-Lewis’s case, prosecutors used a proceeding-based theory for the influence charge and minimized multiplicity by treating the committee as a single official. In Peters’ case, prosecutors used a recipient-based theory and maximized multiplicity by treating each communication as a separate statutory violation.
Both approaches are legally permissible under existing Colorado doctrine — but it’s the intent of the discretion that is curious.
The influence counts were stacked per recipient in one case, not in the other. In the former, the statutory violations resulted in almost a decade of prison. In the latter, probation.
Epp opines that the disparity in the two cases could be “prosecutorial discretion” but could also be “politicized, asymmetrical outcomes,” noting that the attorney general who oversaw both cases is Phil Weiser, who is running for governor.
The current governor, Jared Polis, who is termed out but anticipated to make a run at federal office, announced on X that he was extending the deadline to apply for clemency. In doing so, he invoked the comparison between the application of justice in Lewis’ case versus Peters’ case.
Last week, former State Senator Sonya Jaquez Lewis was sentenced to probation and community service after being convicted of four felonies including Attempt to Influence a Public Official. She made a horrible mistake, and she was wrong. I hope she learns from this and can rebuild…
— Jared Polis (@jaredpolis) March 4, 2026
It is unclear if Tina Peters will apply for clemency following an impressive appellate hearing in January that is still pending.
The post A Tale of Two Sentences: Convictions of Tina Peters vs. a Former State Senator and the Unequal Application of Justice – Gov. Polis Weighs In appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.