Missouri begins complicated task of expunging convictions after passing amendment December 8, 2022 By Griffin Coop After passing a constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana last month, Missouri is facing the complicated task of expunging past marijuana convictions as the new law requires, according to a report in the Missouri Independent. The task requires county officials, in some cases, to eliminate the past offenses one by one, using a cumbersome computer system. The courts have asked the Missouri legislature for an extra $2.5 million to pay for overtime for staff to carry out the project before a pair of ambitious deadlines next year, according to the report. The amendment expunged convictions of people currently on probation or parole for possession or selling three pounds or less of marijuana with some exceptions. It also automatically expunged convictions of people who have already served their sentences and does not require them to petition the court. The amendment says that all marijuana-related offenses must be expunged by June 8, 2023 and all marijuana-related felonies by Dec. 8, 2023, the report said. Here’s the crux of it all from an attorney at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Expungement Clinic: Amendment 3 sets up “a pretty tall order” for the courts, she said, and not a lot of time to do it. “It’s often hard for courts to even find the records from old cases or for whatever reason,” she said. “And so if they can’t find records, it’ll be hard for them to be expunged. So there’s a decent possibility that a lot of people won’t see their records expunged when they’re supposed to see them expunged.” In some counties, the records are not digitized and staff must find the paper records in order to eliminate the offense. In many of the smaller counties, the records, especially for ordinance violations, aren’t digitized. Sydney Ragsdale, an attorney for the University of Missouri-Kansas City Expungement Clinic, has been working on a case involving a woman who had a 30-year-old marijuana charge in a smaller county. The expungement petition process requires that they have the court record. However, the circuit court said they didn’t have any record of the case. “She has this conviction that [Department of Corrections] is going to keep reporting, but the court can’t find her record to order it expunged,” she said. “That’s a big concern.” The clinic was able to find a news article about the charge in an archived newspaper database, and the court finally recognized that they have the case. “If we wouldn’t have done that, I can’t really imagine how they would have found her case and expunged it,” she said. “It’s a testament to how digitizing the records would help.” Maryland voters also approved an amendment to legalize recreational marijuana and expungement some prior convictions, according to the Baltimore Banner. The revised criminal justice codes will pardon simple possession charges in cases where it was the only charge, and provide pathways to expungement where the charge was one of many. The law allows those currently incarcerated on simple possession charges to petition the court for resentencing and release. In addition, the new law reduces the wait time to three years before one can apply to expunge a possession with intent to distribute charge. Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota rejected recreational marijuana amendments last month.
