The trial of former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters ended on Monday, with the jury unanimously finding her guilty of seven of the 10 counts she was charged with. Peters was prosecuted in relation to backing up an election server since she said she believed that a scheduled upgrade of the election software would override election files that were required to be saved for 22-25 months by federal and state law, and she was concerned there was election fraud in the 2020 and 2021 elections.
After deliberating for around three hours, the jury found Peters guilty on three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, official misconduct, violation of a duty, failure to comply with requirements from the Colorado Secretary of State (COSOS), and conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. She was found not guilty on another count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, criminal impersonation, and identity theft.
At the conclusion of a trial, the presiding judge – often with input from the attorneys – will issue instructions to the jury. These instructions can limit or demand the jurors interoperate evidence and law in specific ways.
In the landmark case against Donald Trump, Reason argued Judge Merchan’s instructions all but required former president be found guilty. Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million because the jury instructions would have been unfavorable if the case went to trial. Dominion asserted that several people, including Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and the late Lou Dobbs, made defamatory statements on air about the company and election fraud. In Judge Eric M. Davis’ ruling on the parties’ motions for summary judgment, he indicated that he was going to instruct the jury that they must consider those statements to be false. “The evidence developed in this civil proceeding,” he said, “demonstrates that it “is CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.”
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