Federal Court Has The Authority to Order The State to Expunge Records Relating to an Unconstitutional Conviction.By Darren Chaker www.DarrenChaker.comA district court sitting in habeas shall "dispose of the matter as law and justice shall require" (28 U.S.C. 2243), and the goal of the remedy is to "put the defendant back in the position he would have been in if the [constitutional] violation never occurred." Nunes v. Mueller, 350 F.3d 1045, 1057 (9th Cir. 2003) quoting United States v. Blaylock, 20 F.3d 1458, 1468 (9th Cir. 1994). It follows that the district court has latitude to fashion an appropriate remedy. Hilton v. Braunskill, 481 U.S. 770, 775 (1987) ("[A] court has broad discretion in conditioning a judgment granting habeas relief.").One form of relief that a district court can order in a habeas proceeding is expungement of records relating to an unconstitutional conviction. In Woodall v. Pettibone, 465 F.2d 49 (4th Cir. 1972), the Fourth Circuit held that a prior decision, in which a Maryland statute requiring juveniles in a certain geographic area to be tried as adults was unconstitutional, should be applied retroactively. Id. at 52. The case came before the Fourth Circuit on appeal from the district court's denial of a habeas petition, and the court found that those prosecuted under the unconstitutional statute were presumptively entitled to have their convictions declared null and void and expunged. Id. at 52-53. Notably, the court rejected the State's argument that expunging the records of some 122 individuals subject to the decision was overly burdensome. Id. The court stated that expungement "is an equitable remedy to be granted in the balancing of the interests of thedefendants and the state." Id. at 52.In A.M. v. Butler, 360 F.3d 787 (7th Cir. 2004), the Seventh Circuit consideredthe State of Illinois' appeal of the district court's grant of a writ of habeascorpus. Id. at 789. After holding that the petitioner's Sixth Amendment rights had been violated, the court affirmed the granting of the writ and explicitly ordered the State of Illinois to expunge the petitioner's adjudication of juveniledelinquency unless it gave him a new trial. Id. at 797-802.Tellingly, in Ward v. Wolfenbarger, 340 F.Supp.2d 773 (E.D. Mich. 2004), the court found that the habeas petitioner's 1971 conviction was unconstitutional. Id.at 774. In considering the appropriate relief, the court stated that "[a] federal district court has the authority, in a habeas corpus proceeding, to order theexpungement of a habeas petitioner's criminal records against all persons who maintain custody of such records." Id. at 776. The court then ordered as follows:Accordingly, the judgment of conviction against petitioner for the offenses of possession of LSD and possession of marijuana from the Huron County Circuit Courtfrom January 20, 1971 is vacated and the record of conviction shall be expunged. [Citation omitted]. The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Huron County, Michigan shall forward a copy of this Court's order to any person or agency that was notified of petitioner's arrest or conviction involved with these offenses. [Citationomitted]. A certificate of compliance shall be filed with this Court within 30days of the receipt of this order. Id. at 777; see also Scott v. District Attorney, Jefferson Parish, 309 F.Supp. 833, 835 n. 2, 839 (E.D. La. 1970) (granting habeas writ to petitioner convicted of misdemeanor vagrancy to prevent petitionerfrom suffering collateral consequences of criminal record) affirmed without opinion at 437 F.2d 500.The Ninth Circuit has also found expungement to be an appropriate remedy in a successful habeas proceeding. In White v. White, 925 F.2d 287 (9th Cir. 1991), theNinth Circuit considered a federal inmate's habeas petition challenging the revocation of his parole. Id. at 288. The government claimed that the case was mootbecause the petitioner was, at the time, in custody for subsequent misconduct rather than for the parole revocation that was the subject of the petition. Id. a
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Federal Court Authority to Expunge Records of Unconstitutional Conviction by Darren Chaker
Sometimes a habeas petitioner prevails and it is determined his conviction is a result of an unconstitutional conviction. This article concerns the federal court's authority to destroy/seal records.
Darren Chaker
Darren Chaker
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