Friday, April 27, 2012

Expunged Records Admissible Evidence

House Bill 3091 modifies the state law to allow members of the judiciary, district attorneys, the youthful offender, counsel for the youthful offender, employees of juvenile bureaus and the Office of Juvenile Affairs who are assigned juvenile court intake responsibilities, and the Department of Corrections to access records that have been expunged pursuant without a court order for the purpose of determining whether to dismiss an action, seek a voluntary probation, file a petition or information, or for purposes of sentencing or placement in a case where the person who is the subject of the sealed record is alleged to have committed a subsequent youthful offender act, a juvenile delinquent act, or any adult criminal offense.  Provided, any record sealed pursuant to this section shall be ordered unsealed upon application of the prosecuting agency when said records are requested for use in any subsequent juvenile delinquent, youthful offender, or adult prosecution.
Records expunged shall be admissible in any subsequent criminal prosecution to prove the existence of a prior conviction or prior deferred judgment without the necessity of a court order requesting the unsealing of said records.
Admissible records include those where a person was charged with a misdemeanor, the charge was dismissed following the successful completion of a deferred judgment or delayed sentence, the person has never been convicted of a misdemeanor or felony, no misdemeanor or felony charges are pending against the person, and at least two (2) years have passed since the charge was dismissed.
If the person was charged with a nonviolent felony offense, as set forth in Section 571 of Title 57 of the Oklahoma Statutes, the charge was dismissed following the successful completion of a deferred judgment or delayed sentence, the person has never been convicted of a misdemeanor or felony, no misdemeanor or felony charges are pending against the person, and at least ten (10) years have passed since the charge was dismissed.
The person was convicted of a misdemeanor offense, the person has not been convicted of any other misdemeanor or felony, no felony or misdemeanor charges are pending against the person, and at least ten (10) years have passed since conviction or the person was convicted of a nonviolent felony offense, as defined in Section 571 of Title 57 of the Oklahoma Statutes, the person has received a full pardon for the offense, the person has not been convicted of any other misdemeanor or felony, no felony or misdemeanor charges are pending against the person, and at least ten (10) years have passed since the conviction.
This bill has passed both the house and senate and will be sent to the governor next.

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