Facing public rebuke from his own party, Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday brushed off the Colorado Democratic Party’s censure and defended his decision to cut in half Tina Peters’ prison term, saying the case had long troubled him and that her beliefs should never have factored into her sentencing.

At a news conference announcing an unrelated executive order, Polis was asked about the events of the night before, during which the Colorado Democratic Party’s central committee overwhelmingly voted in favor of a resolution condemning him for commuting Peters’ sentence last week.

Peters, who had been sentenced to nearly nine years following a conviction in a scheme to breach her own county’s secure election equipment in 2020, was granted clemency by Polis on May 15. The governor halved her sentence, effectively making Peters eligible for release on June 1.

The party’s censure of the governor bars Polis from speaking or appearing as an honored guest at party functions until further notice.

Polis said his husband and children were excited about the censure because they believe it meant he would be home more.

But, he explained, that likely won’t be the case.

Instead of the party’s events, his focus will shift to attending “backup” events that he previously had to decline, Polis said.

“There’s other things we’re invited to that I can go to now,” he said.

Polis has been under pressure from President Donald Trump to release the 70-year-old Peters since last May, when Trump called her an “innocent Political Prisoner” and later pardoned Peters, though the president’s pardon powers don’t extend to convictions on state charges.

“Frankly, this has been a case that’s always bothered me,” Polis said on Thursday. “Speech being used in a sentencing context is really contrary to the First Amendment.”

While he agreed with Peters’ charges, Polis had publicly stated on several occasions that he believes her sentence had been too harsh. He noted the sentence for former Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, D-Lafayette, who was convicted of four felonies, including attempting to influence a public official, the same charge Peters faced.

“As someone who has known Sonya as a friend for many years, on a personal level I was glad to hear she isn’t going to prison which is a hard place for anyone, no less a retired 68-year old pharmacist,” he stated in a March 3 post on X. “But it is not lost on me that she was convicted of the exact same felony charge as Tina Peters — attempting to influence a public official — 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.”

On April 2, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that a trial judge had improperly sentenced Peters and ordered a resentencing.

Polis said he agreed with the court’s decision and they “kind of validated, in many ways, the way I thought about this case.”

In their ruling, the Appeals Court judges noted that the First Amendment prohibits punishing someone for their protected speech. Polis argued that the comments made in Peters’ trial about her belief in conspiracy theories “went beyond the relevant considerations for her sentencing.”

“Defendants might believe in a variety of conspiracy theories… that can potentially be relevant to a motive, but in this case, the motive was easy to establish, and the crime was well documented,” he said. “It was very clear she committed these criminal acts, but the fact that she holds certain beliefs should not impact the sentence.”

Marianne Goodland contributed to this story.