2009-2010 Bill 4404: Criminal Records Expungement - South Carolina Legislature Online

1 South Carolina General Assembly 2 118th Session, 2009-2010 3 4 H. 4404 5 6 STATUS INFORMATION 7 8 General Bill 9 Sponsors: Reps. Harvin, Jefferson, Kennedy, Harrison and Sellers 10 Document Path: l:\council\bills\ms\7501ahb10.docx 11 Companion/Similar bill(s): 912 12 13 Introduced in the House on January 21, 2010 14 Currently residing in the House Committee on Judiciary 15 16 Summary: Criminal records expungement 17 18 19 HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS 20 21 Date Body Action Description with journal page number 22 1/21/2010 House Introduced and read first time HJ20 23 1/21/2010 House Referred to Committee on Judiciary HJ20 24 25 26 VERSIONS OF THIS BILL 27 28 1/21/2010 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A BILL 10 11 TO AMEND SECTION 17-22-950, CODE OF LAWS OF 12 SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO EXPUNGEMENT 13 OF CRIMINAL CHARGES IN SUMMARY COURT, SO AS TO 14 DELETE THE REQUIREMENT THAT THE SUMMARY 15 COURT JUDGE OR HIS STAFF FILE THE COMPLETED 16 EXPUNGEMENT ORDER WITH THE CLERK OF COURT. 17 18 Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South 19 Carolina: 20 21 SECTION 1. Section 17-22-950(A) of the 1976 Code, as added 22 by Act 36 of 2009, is amended to read: 23 24 “(A) When criminal charges are brought in a summary court and 25 the accused person is found not guilty or if the charges are 26 dismissed or nolle prossed, pursuant to Section 17140, the 27 presiding judge of the summary court, at no cost to the accused 28 person, immediately shall issue an order to expunge the criminal 29 records of the accused person unless the dismissal of the charges 30 occurs at a preliminary hearing or unless the accused person has 31 charges pending in summary court and a court of general sessions 32 and such charges arise out of the same course of events. This 33 expungement must occur no sooner than the appeal expiration date 34 and no later than thirty days after the appeal expiration date. Upon 35 issuance of the order, the judge of the summary court or a member 36 of the summary court staff must coordinate with SLED to confirm 37 that the criminal charge is statutorily appropriate for expungement; 38 obtain and verify the presence of all necessary signatures; file the 39 completed expungement order with the clerk of court; provide 40 copies of the completed expungement order to all governmental 41 agencies which must receive the order including, but not limited 42 to, the arresting law enforcement agency, the detention facility or

[4404] 2 1 jail, the solicitor’s office, the magistrates or municipal court where 2 the arrest warrant originated, the magistrates or municipal court 3 that was involved in any way in the criminal process of the charge 4 sought to be expunged, and SLED. The judge of the summary 5 court or a member of the summary court staff also must provide a 6 copy of the completed expungement order to the applicant or his 7 retained counsel. The prosecuting agency or appropriate law 8 enforcement agency may file an objection to a summary court 9 expungement. If an objection is filed by the prosecuting agency or 10 law enforcement agency, that expungement then must be heard by 11 the judge of a general sessions court. The prosecuting agency’s or 12 the appropriate law enforcement agency’s reason for objecting 13 must be that the: 14 (1) accused person has other charges pending; 15 (2) prosecuting agency or the appropriate law enforcement 16 agency believes that the evidence in the case needs to be 17 preserved; or 18 (3) accused person’s charges were dismissed as a part of a 19 plea agreement. ” 20 21 SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the 22 Governor. 23 XX 24

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