• Former Mesa County, Colorado, clerk Tina Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison for crimes related to a breach of her county’s voting system.
  • Peters espoused the false conspiracy theory that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden due to ballot fraud.
  • She was accused of allowing access to the voting system to an expert affiliated with My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, a leading proponent of the Trump election conspiracy theory.

🗳️ Register to vote: https://vote.gov/

  • vortic@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    It was actually pretty interesting to listen to the sentencing. It’s about 20 minutes. The judge goes through all of the options at his disposal and discusses his the rationale that he used to arrive at a prison sentence.

    He had the option of sentencing her to parole, community service, or incarceration. He then described her as unrepentant, the most defiant defendant the court has ever seen, and a continuing danger to society. He also discussed that he considers how a sentence will act as deterrent for the defendant directly (not at all in this case) and for others who might seek to commit similar crimes as well as punishment. He determined that Mrs Peters would immediately go commit the same crimes again given the opportunity, that community deterrence is important, and that punishment was warranted.

    He also went through her mitigating circumstances. He compared her circumstances to the typical defendant that his court sees and characterized her as extremely privileged with few mitigating circumstances and many aggravating ones. He said that she simply sought power, prestige, and wealth without a care for who she harmed. He characterized her as an unrepentant liar and a fraud who lied every chance she got including about why she kicked a police officer while on video.

    Based on his rationale, he decided that removing Tina Peter’s from the community was in the best interests of the community.

    TL/DR The judge didn’t like Mrs Peters very much.

    • DigitalNirvana@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Going to prison for 7 years, at 69 years of age. For a crook that probably doesn’t even know her name. smh. The charge should be treason, that’s what she did.

  • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    All these sentences for people who literally tried to subvert our Democracy are light as hell. Slap them for 15 years at a minimum.

    • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I totally agree, for her that’s likely a life sentence. I wonder if there isn’t some form of psychiatric help some of these people could benefit from. They’re all deeply brainwashed. Subjecting them to the people who have been portrayed so long as the enemy might change some minds. Though, I don’t know that I’d want to subject minorities to them.

      • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Sometimes, people really do have bad intentions. This is one of those times. They don’t need psychiatric help. They need swift justice.

        • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          There’s no doubt she had bad intentions. The government is full of people with bad intentions. Taken at face value, somewhere between 40% and 60% of the US has bad intentions. Does that mean we’re almost half evil or that a lot of us are programmed horribly?

          My father, born and raised in Appalachia, was born into racism. Met a black guy, he was nice to my dad. Over the years my dad liked him and considered him a friend. Years later he recounts that this guy was one of the good N’s. JFC dad, where do I start? It’s not that an entire race of people is bad; you’ve been lied to your whole life and watch news that perpetuates that lie. It’s the same overall story with an Indian guy from work who shared some of his family’s curry with him. “He’s one of the good ones…” He votes with the republicans because of “all these horrible minorities waving flags on top buildings”. He’s only ever met a couple and says they’re good. He’s not evil, he’s just been lied to his whole life and has never been exposed to enough minorities to get de-programmed. Would he throw a box of democratic votes in the river if no one was looking? His friends, neighbors, and politicians are telling him he’s going to get overrun and shot by minorities if the left keeps winning. He might. Thankfully, he’ll never be in that position, but their programming is intensely strong.

          • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Your father has bad intentions, doesn’t matter how he got them. There is no deprogramming going on. No one is making an effort to educate these people. If anything, this polarization will get worse. Best case scenario is education gets fixed and this hysteria is buried over time.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      These should all have conspiracy for sedition or some such on them. But our legal system is too broken to look at that question.

    • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      She’s 69. Prison isn’t easy at any age. This is likely a life sentence for her.

      • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        It doesnt matter. How many others would be down for sedition if she got slapped with a thirty year sentence at her age? Not many.

  • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    She was accused of allowing access to the voting system to an expert affiliated with My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell

    I can pretty much guarantee there are no experts associated with Mike Lindell.

  • Soup@lemmy.cafe
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    3 months ago

    So many prison sentences in his wake- none of them are his.

    The hallmark of a truly innocent man.

  • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Everything Trump cultists accuse people of is just a confession at this point. There is no point in even entertaining these people. I hope she enjoys her stay in prison.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      At this point, if something upsets them, it might be safer to assume it’s either a good thing or a benign one that doesn’t really affect anyone (but their “solution” sure will) than it being an actual problem.

  • RattlerSix@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    The judge really have her hell, it’s worth reading. Another article by The Guardian had this gem:

    “She also told the judge she cannot go to prison because she needs to sleep on a magnetic mattress, which she has been using since 1995 to help with health conditions such as chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.”

  • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    On the one hand, I’m glad she’s going to jail. On the other, I’m annoyed ASF that her main conspirator, the mango Mussolini is still not only walking free, but running for fucking president again.

  • whyalone@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    The funny part is, that she believes deep down, if trump wins the election, he will pardon her 😂😂

    • Happywop@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      He can’t, they’re state charges not federal…she fuuuked and deservedly so. Of course unless Trump does win and he threatens the state AG I wouldn’t put it past him ffs. VOTE BLUE!

    • JollyG@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      longer version that includes defense and prosecution arguments as well has her bananas defense of her conduct.

      Starting at 42:31 and going for about 2 minutes is a really stark example of how conspiracy theorists just do not care about the truth and will ignore evidence no matter how obvious.

      Starting at around 1:45:12 and going on for about 2 minutes is a really good example of what not to do if you are speaking to a judge at your own sentencing hearing.

      • modifier@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        Oh I’m not ashamed at all. Inject the schadenfreude directly into my bloodstream.

        • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          The value of these people going away for multiple years cannot be stressed enough. The fact that so many are still walking around free only gives others the indication that they can try it again (and again) until they succeed in destroying our country’s democracy.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      This, in the same week the (female) judge struck down Georgia’s six-week abortion ban:

      When a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then – and only then – may society intervene. An arbitrary six-week ban on (post-embryonic cardiac activity pregnancy) terminations is inconsistent with these rights and the proper balance that a viability rule establishes between a woman’s rights of liberty and privacy and society’s interest in protecting and caring for unborn infants

      I bet that one is getting death threats from the unhinged, as well.

    • Weirdmusic@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Well, he did have to put up with her being in the same court room as him. Personally, I feel sorry for the Judge, he didn’t deserve this.