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40 ■ JUNE 28, 2021 CLOSING ARGUMENT

EDITORIAL BOARD

Applauding the General Assembly’s

Action on Clean Slate Legislation

here’s an important
change the legisla-
Tture has enacted;
it can change lives and
we applaud it: PA 21-32.
It provides for the era-
sure of criminal history
records for certain mis-
demeanor and felony
offenses.
Specifically, once effec-
tive, C.G.S. sec. 54-142a
(e) will provide that
whenever any person has
been convicted in Con-
necticut of a classified or
unclassified misdemean-
or, a class D or E felony
or an unclassified felony
offense carrying a term
of imprisonment of not Connecticut State Capitol building in Hartford,
more than five years, any Photo by Michael Marciano/ALM
police or court record and record of the state’s or case of a class D or E or unclassified felony car-
prosecuting attorney or the prosecuting grand ju- rying a term of imprisonment of not more than
ror pertaining to such conviction, or any inmate five years, any record described in above shall
record pertaining to court obligations arising from be erased or deemed erased by operation of law
such conviction held by the Board of Pardons and 10 years from the date on which the convicted
Parole shall be erased. person’s most recent judgment of conviction.
Lest anyone worry that the subject use this Finally, any conviction designated as a family
provision to erase older convictions when he violence crime, any offense that is a nonviolent
has recent convictions, there is a condition that sexual offense or a sexually violent offense is
ensures only someone who has been “clean” for ineligible, and there are separate provisions for
an extended period get the benefit of the erasure convictions of misdemeanors committed while
provision. In the case of a misdemeanor offense, such person was under eighteen years of age,
any record described above shall be erased or depending, inter alia, upon the date of convic-
deemed erased by operation of law seven years tion.
from the date on which the convicted person’s Why is this important? First, we know that not
most recent conviction was adjudicated. In the only do police, prosecutors and courts have broad

CONNECTICUT
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