SB113 Alabama 2019 Session

Under existing law, a person charged with and convicted for a misdemeanor criminal offense, a traffic violation, a municipal ordinance violation, or a nonviolent felony offense, and subsequently pardoned for the offense, by the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, may not petition the circuit court to have the criminal record and the conviction expunged

This bill would expand the expungement of criminal records to provide for the expungement of the criminal record and the conviction of a pardoned offender, in certain circumstances

This bill would establish that any person whose record of conviction is expunged would not be relieved from the effects of the habitual felony offender law

Amendment 621 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, prohibits a general law whose purpose or effect would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds from becoming effective with regard to a local governmental entity without enactment by a 2/3 vote unless: it comes within one of a number of specified exceptions; it is approved by the affected entity; or the Legislature appropriates funds, or provides a local source of revenue, to the entity for the purpose

The purpose or effect of this bill would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of the amendment

However, the bill does not require approval of a local governmental entity or enactment by a 2/3 vote to become effective because it comes within one of the specified exceptions contained in the amendment

Relating to expungement; to amend Sections 15-27-1 and 15-27-2, as last amended by Act 2018-506, 2018 Regular Session, Code of Alabama 1975; to specify that a circuit court judge may order the expungement of a criminal record and conviction of a person subsequently pardoned for a conviction of certain criminal offenses by the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, in certain circumstances; to provide for the expungement of the criminal record and the conviction of the pardoned individual; to provide that any person whose record of conviction is expunged would not be relieved from effects of the habitual felony offender law; and in connection therewith would have as its purpose or effect the requirement of a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of Amendment 621 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended.