Automatic expungement of eligible offenses

610.141. Automatic expungement of eligible offenses — definitions — retroactive applicability — screening of central repository, when, duties — limit on expungements — report. — 1. For the purposes of this section, the following terms shall mean:

(1) "Case record", all records in a case file in the statewide court automation system relating to an eligible offense;

(2) "Criminal history record information", data relating to the arrest, prosecution, court action, detention, and other related information collected, stored, and disseminated by the central repository for each criminal offense in this state;

(3) "Eligible offense", for an offense to be eligible, it must:

(a) Be a qualifying offense, as defined in this section;

(b) Be a final conviction;

(c) Be the only charge of conviction in a case or part of a case that contains only convictions for qualifying offenses;

(d) Have been one year since final disposition of the eligible offense for a misdemeanor and three years for a felony;

(e) Be an offender with no conviction for a misdemeanor or felony within one calendar year of the final disposition of the expungable offense if the offense is a misdemeanor and three years if the expungable offense is a felony, not including violations of the traffic regulations provided under chapters 301, 302, 303, 304, and 307;

(f) Be an offender with no outstanding arrest or pending charges for a misdemeanor or felony at the time of analysis for expungement, not including violations of the traffic regulations provided under chapters 301, 302, 303, 304, and 307; and

(g) Not be for a class A felony;

(4) "Expungement", closure of the record pursuant to section 610.120;

(5) "Final disposition", completion of all court imposed terms and conditions and unconditional release from custody;

(6) "Qualifying offense", a conviction for:

(a) Possession of a controlled substance under section 195.202, as it existed prior to January 1, 2017;

(b) Unlawful use of drug paraphernalia under section 195.233, as it existed prior to January 1, 2017;

(c) Possession or control of a controlled substance under section 579.015; or

(d) Unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia under section 579.074;

(7) "Restoration of rights", a full restoration of the civil rights of such person to the status occupied prior to the conviction as if such events had never taken place. This includes the right to vote, the right to hold public office, and to serve as a juror. No person with a state-initiated expungement shall be held thereafter under any provision of law to be guilty of perjury or otherwise giving a false statement by reason of his or her failure to recite or acknowledge such convictions or expungement in response to an inquiry and no such inquiry shall be made for information relating to an expungement, except the petitioner shall disclose the expunged offense to any entity with authorization to access closed records under section 610.120. The expunged offense may be considered a prior offense in determining a sentence to be imposed for any subsequent offense that the person is found guilty of committing. Restoration of rights shall not include rights related to the uses for the conviction detailed in section 610.120.

2. All eligible offenses shall automatically be expunged as a matter of law upon eligibility. The provisions of this section shall apply retroactively to any arrest, charge, trial, or conviction for which there is an electronic record regardless of the date that the arrest was made, the charge or charges were brought, the trial occurred, or the conviction was entered. The result of the expungement shall be a closure of the record and restoration of rights, as defined in this section.

3. The central repository shall, on a rolling basis, but not less than once per week, automatically screen criminal history record information contained in the statewide criminal history database for eligible offenses. All eligible offenses shall be automatically expunged by the central repository pursuant to this section. The central repository shall base automated expungement record designations only on the data available in its system. Once expunged, an offense record status shall reflect the expungement in the criminal history system by way of the Missouri uniform law enforcement system. If additional information is learned by the central repository relating to eligibility, the analysis may be rerun as necessary and the record status updated. The central repository shall, on at least a weekly basis, send the supreme court of Missouri a list of all expunged offense changes since the previous report.

4. Upon completion of each expungement eligibility analysis or upon any update of record status under subsection 3 of this section, the central repository shall notify the office of state courts administrator of its designations of automated expungement eligible offenses, in a manner to be determined by the office of state courts administrator and the state highway patrol. Case records for eligible offenses contained within the statewide court automation system shall be confidential and available to the parties or as otherwise provided by supreme court rules. The office of state courts administrator shall expunge case records for eligible offenses based only on the information available in the statewide court automation system and the designations of eligible offenses provided by the central repository.

5. For purposes of compliance with this section, any agency releasing investigative reports under chapter 610 shall treat said information as a closed record where it relates only to an expunged offense under this section. It shall be an affirmative defense that an agency conducted a Missouri uniform law enforcement system query of the relevant criminal history record and adhered to the record status designation therein.

6. An offender shall be limited to three misdemeanor and two felony expungements under this section and section 610.140 combined. Where a criminal case contains more than one expungable offense, the offense with the highest level penalty available shall be the only offense that counts for the purposes of this subsection.

7. Nothing in this section shall prohibit the filing of an expungement petition under any other provision of law for which such a filing is permissible.

8. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the sole remedy for relief for failure to expunge under this section shall be the filing of an expungement petition under section 610.140.

9. Beginning January 1, 2028, and each year thereafter, the Missouri state highway patrol shall submit a report to the joint committee on the justice system, the house judiciary committee or any successor committee, and the senate judiciary and civil and criminal jurisprudence committee or any successor committee providing statistical information for the prior year, arranged by judicial circuit and county, of the number of expungements issued under this section in the criminal history system. The data shall be aggregated by race, sex, age, circuit, county, and offense type and level if such data is available.

10. The provisions of this section shall be effective when technically feasible for both the office of state courts administrator and the central repository, but no later than January 1, 2027.

11. Notwithstanding section 610.120, upon request, the Missouri state highway patrol shall provide a consumer reporting agency with information sufficient to accurately identify and delete records associated with all offenses being expunged under this section. Consumer reporting agencies shall sign an agreement which certifies they will only use the data provided for the purpose of compliance with this chapter and that when no longer needed, all such data will be destroyed.

12. The office of state courts administrator, the department of corrections, and the Missouri state highway patrol shall jointly develop a document outlining the state's expungement provisions under this section which shall be provided by:

(1) Any court sentencing an individual for a qualifying offense under this section at the time of sentencing; or

(2) Any probation or parole officer releasing an individual from supervision for a qualifying offense under this section.