Senate Bill No. 624
(By Senator Craigo)
____________
[Introduced February 18, 2002; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
____________
A BILL to amend article eleven, chapter sixty-one of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
twenty-six, relating to expungement of a drug-related felony
conviction for those under age twenty-two at the time the
crime was committed.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article eleven, chapter sixty-one of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section
twenty-six, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 11. GENERAL PROVISIONS CONCERNING CRIMES.
§61-11-26. Expungement of criminal records for those convicted of
drug related felonies for crimes committed under age
twenty-two.
(a) Any person who has been convicted in this state of a drug
related felony for an offense committed prior to him or her having
attained the age of twenty-two years, may make a motion in the
circuit court in which the charges were filed to expunge all
records relating to that conviction: Provided, That the motion may
not be filed sooner than the greater of seven years following the
date on which the conviction order was entered or seven years since
the last preceding day on which the movant was jailed or
imprisoned, and the motion must allege that the movant has not been
subsequently convicted of any felony or other serious offense.
(b) Upon ordering the motion filed the court will set a date
for hearing and require the movant to cause a copy of the motion,
the filing order and an apt notice of the time and date of the
hearing to be served upon the prosecuting attorney and the
arresting agency who may, if either should desire, file a
responsive motion in opposition to the expungement.
(c) If the court finds that the seven-year period as required
in subsection (a) of this section has expired and that the movant
has not been convicted of any felony or other serious offense since
the conviction sought to be expunged, the court may grant the
motion and order the sealing of all records in the custody of the
court and expungement of any records in the custody of any other
agency or official including law-enforcement records. Every agency
with records relating to the arrest, charge or other matters
arising out of the arrest or charge, will be ordered to expunge those records and shall certify to the court within sixty days of
the entry of the expungement order, that the required expungement
has been completed. All orders enforcing the expungement procedure
shall also be sealed.
(d) Upon expungement, the proceedings in the matter shall be
considered never to have occurred. The court and other agencies
shall reply to any inquiry that no record exists on the matter.
The person whose record is expunged shall not have to disclose the
fact of the record or any matter relating thereto on an application
for employment, credit or other type of application.
(e) Inspection of the sealed records in the court's possession
may thereafter be permitted by the court only upon a motion by the
person who is the subject of the records or upon a petition filed
by a prosecuting attorney that inspection and possible use of the
records in question are necessary to the investigation or
prosecution of a crime in this state or another jurisdiction. If
the court finds that the interests of justice will be served by
granting the petition, it may be granted.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide youthful drug
offenders an opportunity to rebuild their lives by expunging their
drug related conviction after seven years of offense free living.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.