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« Bunnell trial: Jury goes home again without verdict | Today | Senate backs medical marijuana 'compassion centers' » May 15, 2008Update: House OKs criminal case expungement billPROVIDENCE -- The House late today approved a bill to "quash and destroy'' the records of criminal cases in which a criminal was given a "deferred sentence'' in exchange for sparing the state a trial by pleading no contest or guilty to a crime. Th House voted 46 to 17 to support the measure, with no debate. Click here for the roll call on the vote. The bill now goes to the Senate. Unlike the state's current expungement law, the bill the House took up today is not limited to non-violent offenses by first-time offenders. In fact, the Rhode Island Supreme Court decision last November that sparked this latest drive to erase criminal records concerned a man who had pleaded no contest to second-degree robbery and a woman who had pleaded no contest to a drug charge. Both were given deferred sentences. A Superior Court judge -- and then the Supreme Court -- concluded that neither was eligible under the current expungement law: The man because he had commited a violent crime, and the woman because she got into further trouble, which meant she was no longer a first-time offender. The bill would open the door for the immediate destruction of such records after the deferral period -- which usually runs five years -- has ended, regardless of the nature of the crime and the history of the offender. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Almeida, D-Providence, is the latest in a series promoted by prisoner-rights advocates, the criminal defense bar and the public defenders office this year to reach the House floor. More may be coming, including one giving judges the discretion to erase multiple misdemeanors from someone's record. In 2003, The Journal reported Almeida was found guilty of shoving a man who was trying to repossess his girlfriend's car from her driveway in Federal Hill. He was sentenced to one year of probation, 25 hours of community service and ordered to have no contact with the man or his brother. -- With reports from Katherine Gregg of the Journal State House Bureau Posted by Mike McKinney CommentsAnimal Farm? | May 15, 2008 6:38 PM link Once again our legislature, that bunch of crooks, makes life better for crooks and worse for normal citizens. This really puts kids and the elderly in danger from those people, not to mention the rest of us. Maybe the legislature should just pass a law that they and their cronies are above the law, and be done with it. janet | May 15, 2008 10:44 PM link Post a commentPlease be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish. |
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ProJo 9 to 5 News Blog
Oct 2005 - March 2006
Wow, no wonder why the guy wants his record expunged: that ProJo article (http://www.projo.com/news/2008/almeida_20030206.html) is an amazing tale of a hothead who thinks he can pass off his fantastic tales (a guy ramming his own head into a car door jamb?) to a judge.
It's a great example of exactly why we shound NOT automatically erase criminal records. The public, not to mention the police, need to know when someone already has exhibited violent tendencies. It's always sad to read about the death of someone, especially women and children, who had been involved in a physically abusive relationship.
Well, at least we have other sources like the ProJo archives in order to research perps, and Google has a pretty good memory, too. But this bill has the potential to seriously impair criminal prosecution of folks whose past criminal escapades ought not be officially forgotten. Maybe the way around it would be to establish much longer probation periods, like 10 or 20 years, to keep the heat on these guys.