SB 39

Under current law, a court may order a person's criminal record expunged of a

crime for which the maximum term of imprisonment is six years or less (Class H

felony and below) if the person committed that crime before the age of 25, the person

had not been previously convicted of a felony, and the crime was not a violent felony.

Current law specifies that the expungement order must be made only at sentencing

and then the record is expunged when the person completes his or her sentence.

This bill removes the condition that the person committed the crime before the

age of 25 (the bill retains the requirements that the crime be no greater than a Class

H felony, the person had no previous felony convictions, and the crime was not a

violent felony) and makes certain traffic crimes ineligible for expungement. This bill

also provides that, if the sentencing court did not order the record expunged, the

person may file a petition with the sentencing court after he or she completes his or

her sentence. Upon receipt of the petition, the court must review the petition and

then may order the record expunged or may deny the petition. If the court denies the

petition, the person may not file another petition for two years, and no person may

file more than two petitions per crime. The changes described in this paragraph

retroactively apply to persons who were convicted of a crime before this bill takes

effect.

This bill also allows the sentencing court to order that a person's record not be

eligible for expungement. This bill provides that, if a record is expunged of a crime,

that crime is not considered a conviction for employment purposes and specifies that

employment discrimination because of a conviction record includes requesting a

person to supply information regarding a crime if the record has been expunged of

the crime.