Bill > S998

This bill aims to remove collateral consequences and protect the presumption of innocence. It includes the following key provisions: 1. It reduces the waiting period for sealing criminal records from 10 to 7 years for certain offenses and from 5 to 3 years for other offenses. 2. It requires the immediate sealing of records for any offense that did not result in a conviction or "guilty file" disposition, without requiring the individual to file a petition. 3. It extends the sealing provisions to include juvenile offenses, including those charged as youthful offenders, as long as they were not transferred to another court. 4. It defines a "conviction" as only a finding of guilt, excluding continuances without a finding. 5. It requires the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services to provide a written statement to any requestor of criminal records that a presumption of innocence applies to an individual with an offense that did not result in a conviction or is still pending. 6. It provides individuals or their legal representatives direct access to their sealed records without the need for a court order. The overall goal of this bill is to reduce the long-term consequences of arrests and charges that do not result in convictions, and to strengthen the presumption of innocence for those individuals.

Justice

https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/S998