Overview
- Gov. Jared Polis commuted Tina Peters’s nine-year sentence in May and she was released on June 1, after which she made public appearances and met President Trump in the Oval Office.
- Two board members, Hannah Seigel Proff and Azra Taslimi, publicly disclosed that the Executive Clemency Advisory Board twice voted unanimously to deny Peters’s clemency request.
- Polis fired Proff and Taslimi on Wednesday for violating an executive order that requires clemency deliberations and votes to remain confidential.
- The governor defended his commutation by citing a Colorado appeals court finding and his view that Peters’s sentence was disproportionate, and he says outside pressure did not drive his decision.
- The episode has prompted partisan backlash, a censure from Colorado Democrats, and concerns that removing dissenting advisers will chill transparency in future clemency reviews.