A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Maine have filed legislation that would lead to the automatic expungement of thousands of past marijuana convictions and would allow for those in prison to be resentenced.
House Bill 1646 was filed today in the House of Representatives with 11 sponsors led by State Representative David Boyer. It was quickly assigned to the Judiciary Committee and “Sent for concurrence”.
Under the proposed law, “All arrests, convictions and adjudications for possession of cannabis are deemed vacated and the records of those arrests, convictions and adjudications must be expunged.” Those currently serving jailtime for marijuana-related offenses would be allowed to submit a resentencing petition.
The Department of Public Safety would be required to “review all records possessed by any state criminal justice or law enforcement agency, the department’s Bureau of State Police, State Bureau of Identification or the Federal Bureau of Investigation that contain criminal history record information pursuant to Title 16, section 703, subsection 3 and, no later than January 1, 2025, shall expunge all records that relate to arrests, convictions and adjudications for crimes or civil violations for possession of cannabis.”
Furthermore, the measure states that “Upon a request made pursuant to subsection 4 by an individual who has been arrested, convicted or adjudicated of a crime or civil violation for possession of cannabis, the department, within 30 days of receipt of the request, shall review the request, make a determination as to the eligibility of the individual for action under this section and notify the individual of the department’s decision. If the department determines the individual eligible, the department shall expunge that individual’s relevant records within 30 days of the determination.”
Within three months of notification to the department of the expungement of records related to arrests, convictions or adjudications of crimes or civil violations for possession of cannabis, “the court receiving the notification shall vacate all convictions and adjudications for crimes or civil violations for possession of cannabis.”
The legislation also states that by January 1, 2024, “the chief administrative officer of a correctional facility and the jail administrator shall create a list of all individuals serving a sentence of imprisonment in a correctional facility or jail in this State, respectively, for a cannabis-related offense and those individuals on supervised release, probation or administrative release as part of a sentence for a cannabis-related offense. The chief administrative officer and the jail administrator shall provide the list to the court at which the individual was sentenced and shall notify each individual on the list of that individual’s right to petition the sentencing court for resentencing pursuant to this section.”
An individual who has been convicted of a cannabis related offense and who has not completed the sentence imposed by the court for that conviction “may petition that sentencing court, either before or after receipt of notification pursuant to subsection 1, for resentencing”.
In the case of such a petition, the prosecutor involved in the case would have 14 days to object, or the person would be resentenced. If there is an objection, a hearing before a judge would be ordered.
At that hearing, the prosecutor would be required to prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that:
(1) The crime that is the subject of the petition is not a cannabis-related offense;
(2) Resentencing would not be in the interests of justice; or
(3) If resentencing is appropriate, the appropriate sentence is something other than the portion of the sentence the individual who is the subject of the petition has already served.
The full text of House Bill 1646 can be found by clicking here.
