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Posted June 27
The Hazards of Using an Eraser on History: The Colorado Legislature’s Ugly Lesson
The Colorado legislature crossed a scary threshold this year by making it possible to erase history, something that used to be the exclusion province of totalitarian regimes bent on affirming their grip on power by denying or hiding the past.
Effective July 1, some criminal convictions in Colorado can now be made to go away. Convicted defendants in drug cases will be able to petition a court no sooner than 10 years after their conviction to have the court file in the case sealed. Doesn’t matter if there had been a well-attended trial. Doesn’t matter if the conviction was for a felony. Doesn’t matter if there had been heavy media coverage. Doesn’t matter if the defendant did two years in the slammer. Doesn’t matter if the defendant now wants to serve in public office. Doesn’t matter if the defendants, by their drug use, ruined the lives of those close to them. The case can be made go to away, without telling a soul other than the court clerks who are to place the record under lock-and-key. And from that day forward, the defendants are given legal license to lie: they can deny to anyone anywhere or any job application or any document of any kind that they were ever charged, much less convicted.
There are limitations. For now, only drug cases can disappear this way, only felony convictions the state classifies as “minor” (class 5 or 6), and only possession or use cases. The defendant has to have a clean record in the 10 years since the conviction. Law enforcement officers still get access to the records. And anyone who thinks subsequent events warrant unsealing the file can petition a judge to have it reopened.
Trouble is, once the eraser is out, the ugly precedent is set. As of today, criminal records can be sealed only if no crime was charged or if the case was dismissed due to a plea bargain in a separate case. That’s bad enough as it is (anytime public resources are used in an investigation the public as a right to know about it even if no one was charged). But as of July 1 - for the first time in state history – some drug convictions can be made to disappear. As of next year, who knows? If using an eraser is OK, why not apply it to drug dealers? Crimes against people, including assault or rape? Financial criminals such as mortgage brokers who act like scam artists?
The problem being addressed, of course, is that some people can’t forgive. They can’t consider a 10-year old drug conviction for possession in the context of what the person has done since then, and make a judgment about their character given everything known about that person.
So for their sins – because some people can’t be fair – we all pay a penalty, we are all denied the right to take into account someone’s full picture, warts and all.
We are all forced to live with a history that can be made to go away at the stroke of a pen.
Stalin would be proud.
