{"id":3890,"date":"2023-08-01T12:08:09","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T16:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncs-law.com\/?p=3890"},"modified":"2024-02-05T08:58:44","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T13:58:44","slug":"applying-prospective-statutes-retroactively-a-new-take-on-expungements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncs-law.com\/applying-prospective-statutes-retroactively-a-new-take-on-expungements\/","title":{"rendered":"Applying Prospective Statutes Retroactively: A New Take on Expungements"},"content":{"rendered":"

August, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n

Indiana\u2019s Expungement Statute gives those who have been convicted of a crime a second chance at employment and other meaningful opportunities.\u00a0 Though not all crimes are expungable (removed and\/or sealed from a criminal record), Indiana\u2019s statute prohibits employers and other organizations from discriminating against a person who has expunged a variety of convictions from the person\u2019s record.\u00a0 See Indiana Code 35-38-9-1 et. seq.<\/a><\/p>\n

Generally, a person convicted of a misdemeanor is eligible for expungement five years from the date of her sentencing, while those convicted of a felony must wait eight years.\u00a0 While petitions for arrest-only offenses may be expunged as many times as needed over the course of a lifetime, the expungement of conviction offenses is a once-per-lifetime opportunity.\u00a0 If a person seeks a successful expungement of a conviction and then commits another crime resulting in a conviction, she cannot seek a second expungement.<\/p>\n

The high-stakes nature of the conviction expungement petition as well as some recent changes in the law are reasons you may consider the assistance of an attorney in the expungement process. Recent Changes in Indiana\u2019s Expungement Law<\/p>\n

In June 2020, with the help of students from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law\u2019s Civil Practice Clinic, the Indiana Supreme Court importantly clarified Indiana\u2019s expungement law in Gulzar v. State<\/em><\/a>, No. 19S-XP-673, 2020 WL 3445732 (Ind. 2020). Specifically, the case explained the previous ambiguity regarding the timeframe within which to seek an expungement.\u00a0 This ambiguity involved the following question: for purposes of seeking an expungement, is the \u201cdate of conviction\u201d the date upon which the court reduces a sentence from felony to misdemeanor?\u00a0 Or is the applicable date the original conviction date?<\/p>\n

In Gulzar, the petitioner, Mr. Gulzar, had pleaded guilty to a Class D felony in 2006. Ten years later, in August 2016, after numerous petitions to convert his conviction to a misdemeanor, the trial court finally reduced his felony conviction to a misdemeanor.\u00a0 After the 2016 conversion of his conviction, Mr. Gulzar attempted to expunge the misdemeanor conviction under Ind. Code 35-38-9-2<\/a>, which applies to a person convicted of a minor felony that is subsequently reduced to a misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

However, when Mr. Gulzar petitioned for expungement, he was unsure whether the \u201cdate of conviction\u201d was the 2006 conviction date or the 2016 conversion date.\u00a0 Unfortunately for Mr. Gulzar, the trial court reasoned that the \u201cdate of conviction\u201d for expungement purposes was the 2016 conversion date instead of the 2006 date of conviction.\u00a0\u00a0 The Court told Mr. Gulzar he would have to continue to wait five years for his expungement.<\/p>\n

A divided appellate court affirmed, and Mr. Gulzar petitioned for transfer to the Indiana Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Mr. Gulzar, a few weeks later, the General Assembly amended Ind. Code 35-38-9-2<\/a> to clarify the timeline such that Mr. Gulzar would, in fact, be entitled to an expungement. The General Assembly clarified that the date of Mr. Gulzar\u2019s original felony conviction in 2006 was the applicable date for the purposes of his expungement petition, rather than the 2016 conversion date.<\/p>\n

But does this amendment apply retroactively? According to the Supreme Court and with the help of skilled student advocacy, yes.\u00a0 Mr. Gulzar was entitled to his expungement from the date of his original conviction in 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August, 2023 Indiana\u2019s Expungement Statute gives those who have been convicted of a crime a second chance at employment and other meaningful opportunities.\u00a0 Though not all crimes are expungable (removed and\/or sealed from a criminal record), Indiana\u2019s statute prohibits employers and other organizations from discriminating against a person who has expunged a variety of convictions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncs-law.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncs-law.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncs-law.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncs-law.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncs-law.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3890"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncs-law.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3991,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncs-law.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3890\/revisions\/3991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncs-law.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncs-law.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncs-law.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}