Criminal Records Create a Second-Class Citizenry: Changing the Way Adult Convictions are Vacated in Washington State
Seattle Journal for Social Justice, Forthcoming
50 Pages Posted: 22 Oct 2013
Date Written: March 28, 2013
Abstract
This article principally focuses on the ability of a convicted person to remove or “vacate” his adult criminal records from non-Court entities in Washington State. Ultimately, Washington should remove the limit currently prohibiting a record holder from vacating more than one misdemeanor in his or her lifetime. A convicted person in Washington State is theoretically allowed to vacate an unlimited number of felonies in his or her lifetime. In contrast, he or she may not vacate a misdemeanor if any other conviction, misdemeanor or felony, has been vacated in his or her lifetime. I will posit that, for the purposes of vacating criminal records in Washington, at minimum, misdemeanors should generally be treated the same as felonies by allowing a convicted person to theoretically be able to vacate an unlimited number of misdemeanors. Employment, housing, and public safety factors, among others, tend to favor this prescription.
Keywords: vacate, expunge, seal, Washington, criminal records, collateral consequences
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