This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
Forty-eight days after commuting the sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters over concerns about her right to free speech, Gov. Jared Polis has dismissed a pair of officials for public comments they made against that clemency decision.
Azra Taslimi and Hannah Seigel Proff were informed that their positions on the Governor’s Executive Clemency Advisory Board were terminated because of comments they made to the New York Times last month.
The two explained how the clemency board twice rejected Peters’ request for clemency, telling the New York Times, “It’s very clear it’s motivated by politics and influence." The pair reiterated their concerns in an op-ed in The Denver Post, in which they called the case a two-tiered system of justice, “rewarding proximity to power, and leaving everyone else to absorb the cost.”
In the letter explaining the decision to remove them from the board, Polis said they were “terminated, effective immediately," and noted concerns over confidentiality and the sharing of what are supposed to be private votes.
“Given the sensitive nature of the clemency process, every board member must be held to the highest standard of confidentiality when handling clemency applications, no matter what application is at hand,” Polis wrote.
'To be kicked off the board for, again, asserting our right to speech ... is hypocritical and disappointing'
Both women are Denver-based attorneys. Proff is a criminal defense attorney with her own practice and Taslimi is a civil rights attorney who previously worked as a public defender. The juxtaposition of their dismissal against Polis’ stated reasoning for shortening Peters’ sentence is not lost on them, Proff said.
“I had listened to some of his statements and to hear that part of the reason Ms. Peters was freed was because of her asserting her First Amendment rights to speech, whether Polis liked the content or not, and then to be kicked off the board for, again, asserting our right to speech and to telling what happened behind the scenes is hypocritical and disappointing,” Proff said.
Taslimi said they made the decision to speak for the sake of accountability.
“When a government process produces an outcome that raises serious questions about fairness and equal justice, the people inside that process who witnessed it firsthand should be able to say so publicly, not to undermine the process, but to make it better,” Taslimi said. “That's not a radical idea. That's accountability.”
Polis overruled his advisory board's decision
Taslimi and Proff said the board reviewed Peters’ application twice and both times voted against it. Polis then overruled that decision. Polis pointed to an executive order he issued when he reconstituted the clemency advisory board in 2019. That order set conditions on confidentiality for clemency discussions.
“Publicly disclosing board recommendations and how members vote on any case threatens the credibility of the board, colors future deliberations by the board, and breaks clearly stated confidentiality policy articulated in the Executive Order which establishes this board. Applicants going forward can expect the full confidentiality promised in the Executive Order,” the governor’s office said in a statement Wednesday.
Peters’ case has dominated Colorado news for years, beginning with her efforts to investigate election fraud in the clerk’s office she ran. Those investigations turned up no evidence, but did lead to a criminal conviction and a lengthy prison sentence.
Polis commuted Peters’ sentence in May, saying that he was concerned her nearly-9-year sentence was overly harsh and may have infringed on her free speech rights.
On May 31, the governor authored a blog post on the website Substack explaining his decision. That blog concludes with a promise of a follow-up where he will “reflect on the reaction I have seen from this decision and what I have learned.”
That blog has not yet been published.
The clemency advisory board is composed of 11 members and is entirely volunteer. Proff has served on it for seven and a half years and said she applauds many of the decisions Polis has made with respect to clemencies.
“I was really told it was going to be a new and more proactive board than what we saw under (Gov. John) Hickenlooper who waited until the very end of his eight years in office to act. And to give Polis credit where credit's due, we saw him act. We've seen some of these holiday pardons and clemency grants that have come out throughout his term,” Proff said.
Peters' case was already unusual
That made the Peters case all the more unusual, Taslimi said. Peters was not technically eligible for clemency because she had not exhausted her legal options in court. In fact, Peters is in the process of appealing her conviction to the Colorado State Supreme Court, maintaining that she committed no crimes. Applicants can submit waivers, but Taslimi said the board never saw one.
“Most applicants don't get to submit a second or an updated application. That never happens,” Taslimi said.
Peters’ case also differed from typical clemency cases in that she did not publicly state contrition in ways that were similar to Polis’ past commutations. Peters made comments about regretting the actions, but did not say they were wrong. Since she was freed June 1, Peters has spoken publicly at events in Las Vegas and Castle Rock.
On Election Day this week, she appeared in photos at the White House with President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Proff said part of the reason she chose to speak out is because Peters “flagrantly started up with this false information campaign as soon as she was released from prison.”
“Whatever remorse was indicated in her application, it seemed very manufactured and not very genuine,” Taslimi added. “And I think we were right. I think she holds the same view she held and the things that got her in trouble in the first place are things that she's continuing to espouse.”
Peters continues to opine on elections. A Facebook page connected to her has been criticizing the counting of the current primary election results. Republican gubernatorial candidates Victor Marx and Barbara Kirkmeyer are locked in a close race that has yet to be decided.
“Democrats still hard at work trying to figure out who the Republican nominee should be. Stay tuned,” reads one post that is punctuated with the hashtag “#DoYouHearMeNowColorado”.
