House Bill 247

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 99-19-71, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT A NONVIOLENT OFFENDER MAY PETITION THE SENTENCING COURT TO HAVE HIS OR HER RECORD EXPUNGED AFTER THE OFFENDER HAS COMPLETELY SERVED HIS OR HER SENTENCE AND HAS MET CERTAIN OTHER REQUIREMENTS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 99-19-71, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

99-19-71. (1) Any person (a) who has been convicted of a misdemeanor, excluding a conviction for a traffic violation and who is a first offender or (b) any person who has been convicted of a nonviolent crime in any court and has been a productive citizen for a minimum of five (5) years after the completion of his or her sentence, may petition the justice, county, circuit or municipal court, as may be applicable, for an order to expunge any such conviction from all public records. For purposes of this section "completion of his or her sentence" means that the nonviolent offender is no longer housed in any correctional facility or the State Penitentiary and is no longer under a restitution obligation, probation or any other post-release supervision. Upon entering such order, a nonpublic record thereof shall be retained by the court and by the Mississippi Criminal Information Center solely for the purpose of determining whether, in subsequent proceedings, such person is a first offender. The effect of such order shall be to restore such person, in the contemplation of the law, to the status he occupied before such arrest. No person as to whom such order has been entered shall be held thereafter under any provision of law to be guilty of perjury or to have otherwise given a false statement by reason of his failure to recite or acknowledge such arrest or conviction in response to any inquiry made of him for any purpose, except for the purpose of determining in any subsequent proceedings under this section, whether such person is a first offender.

(2) Upon petition therefor, a justice, county, circuit or municipal court shall expunge the record of any case in which an arrest was made, the person arrested was released and the case was dismissed or the charges were dropped or there was no disposition of such case.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2005.