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MO lawmakers to make clearing criminal records easier
You did the crime, you did the time - so should you be able to clean the slate?
Some people in Stoddard County, including the prosecuting attorney, believes certain offenses should have an opportunity at a clean slate.
For that reason, Missouri lawmakers want to make clearing your criminal record a little easier.
“I think it’s a really good idea because a lot of people deserves a second chance," Caitlyn Mann said.
Caitlyn Mann works at Sweet Teas & Company in Bloomfield. She agrees that changes should be made.
“If they made a mistake when they were younger and they’ve not made another offense I think it should be taken off," Mann said.
“There are situation where expungement is necessary," prosecuting attorney Russel Oliver said. "For someone who made a mistake in the past to get that cleaned up and get on with their lives.”
Oliver said expanding those laws may cause concerns for some, but will be great for the community.
“There are instances where expungement is not the end of the world as far as law enforcement is concerned," he said. "It can benefit people getting back on their feet and becoming productive members of society.”
Law makers want to make the changes to help one-time offenders and low-misdemeanor offenders like those who write bad checks.
Lawmakers hope is to make the law more broad and include more offenses that aren’t felonies or sexual assault.
The changes will allow low offenses to be taken off of websites like CaseNet, and only be seen where authorities can view it.
“If you would run an FBI check under this new statue then the new FBI check will still show those records," Oliver said.
Oliver also said prosecutors across the state agree with this expansion of the law with a few changes.
This expansion of the law will not apply to repeat offenders.
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