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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
04/25/2024 10:23 AM
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20190&cosponId=29445
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House of Representatives
Session of 2019 - 2020 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: May 1, 2019 11:45 AM
From: Representative Austin A. Davis
To: All House members
Subject: Pardons: Automatic Expungement of Criminal and Driving Records
 
A pardon from the governor is meant to constitute total forgiveness by the state for a past criminal action. However, even after the pardon is given, the offense remains on an individual’s criminal and driving record. While pardon recipients have the opportunity to get their records expunged by the court and PennDOT, requiring duplicative steps to achieve expungement is costly and unnecessary.

If the state considers a person to be fully forgiven, their offense should be automatically removed from their criminal and driving records. However, the current process for record expungement after a pardon is repetitive and overly bureaucratic. My legislation would make it easier for pardoned individuals to have their rights and privileges fully restored so they can move forward with their lives.

Pardon recipients have already proven to the Board of Pardons and to the governor that they are deserving of a fresh start. Please join me in simplifying the expungement process to ease the burden on our constituents and our government.

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Introduced as HB1431