Delaware General Assembly

Signed 7/17/08

The General Assembly has ended, the current status is the final status.

6/19/08

Valihura

Reps. Hudson, Stone, J. Johnson
Sen. Adams, DeLuca, Cloutier, F Simpson

Reps. Carson, Keeley, Plant, Walls

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 10 AND 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO RECORDS OF ARREST AND PROSECUTION.

This Act will modernize and streamline the process by which the police records and court records relating to arrests in cases with adult defendants are expunged. Under current law, all requests for expungement are discretionary matters decided upon by a judge. This Act will require the automatic expungement of records in most misdemeanor cases upon request of the defendant to the State Bureau of Identification. This new process will be much simpler than the existing one, and therefore less expensive to both the defendant and the criminal justice system. The Act also makes several changes to the discretionary expungement process utilized by the courts that will make that process more efficient. It also creates a mechanism that will allow most misdemeanor convictions that are the subject of a Governor’s pardon to be expunged at the discretion of the Superior Court. Under current law, pardoned convictions can never be expunged. This Act also will facilitate the rehabilitative efforts of defendants who resolved their cases by successful completion of Probation Before Judgment or the First Offenders Controlled Substances Diversion Program by prohibiting the State Bureau of Identification from including information about the arrest on the version of the defendant’s criminal history record that is released to persons or entities outside of the criminal justice system. The information will remain available to judges, prosecutors and the police. Expungement will be available after enough time has passed to permit enforcement of the time limits promulgated in the various first offender programs.

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Takes effect upon being signed into law

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