How Do I Expunge a Misdemeanor in Mississippi?
Full Question:
Answer:
Please see the following MS statute:
99-19-71. (1) Any person who has been convicted of a misdemeanor, excluding
a conviction for a traffic violation, and who is a first offender, may petition
the justice, county, circuit or municipal court in which the conviction was
had for an order to expunge any such conviction from all public records.
(2) (a) Any person who has been convicted of one of the following
felonies may petition the court in which the conviction was had for an order to
expunge one (1) conviction from all public records five (5) years after the
successful completion of all terms and conditions of the sentence for the
conviction: a bad check offense under Section 97-19-55; possession of a
controlled substance or paraphernalia under Section 41-29-139(c) or (d); false
pretense under Section 97-19-39; larceny under Section 97-17-41; malicious
mischief under Section 97-17-67; or shoplifting under Section 97-23-93. A
person is eligible for only one (1) felony expunction under this section.
(b) The petitioner shall give ten (10) days' written notice to the
district attorney before any hearing on the petition. In all cases, the court
wherein the petition is filed may grant the petition if the court determines,
on the record or in writing, that the applicant is rehabilitated from the
offense which is the subject of the petition. In those cases where the court
denies the petition, the findings of the court in this respect shall be
identified specifically and not generally.
(3) Upon entering an order of expunction under this
section, a nonpublic record thereof shall be retained* * * by the
Mississippi Criminal Information Center solely for the purpose of determining
whether, in subsequent proceedings, the person is a first offender.
The order of expunction shall not preclude a district attorney's office from
retaining a nonpublic record thereof for law enforcement purposes only. The
existence of an order of expunction shall not preclude an employer from asking
a prospective employee if the employee has had an order of expunction entered
on his behalf. The effect of the expunction order shall be to
restore the person, in the contemplation of the law, to the status he
occupied before any arrest or indictment for which convicted.
No person as to whom an expunction 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, indictment or conviction in response to any
inquiry made of him for any purpose other than the purpose of
determining, in any subsequent proceedings under this section, whether
the person is a first offender. A person as to whom an order has
been entered, upon request, shall be required to advise the court, in camera,
of the previous conviction and expunction in any legal proceeding wherein the
person has been called as a prospective juror. The court shall thereafter and
before the selection of the jury advise the attorneys representing the parties
of the previous conviction and expunction.
(4) 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.
