Growing up in the state of Alabama, several things became apparent to me very early on. The most important of these was that the unofficial state motto was “thank God for Mississippi.” Unfortunately, there are matters where Alabama has been dead last. One of the biggest failings to come up the last few years in the legislature is that the state does not have a true expungement law.
In our state, an individual can be arrested and charged with a crime but never prosecuted. As such, that arrest and criminal charge will follow them for the rest of their life. This reality is also true of individuals who have their charges brought before a grand jury or a court and have been acquitted or found not guilty.
Having a criminal charge on someone’s record prevents him or her from being able to get the jobs they are capable of doing. A lot of jobs will simply not interview or accept individuals that have been charged with certain crimes. Discrimination against individuals who have been charged with a crime is extremely prevalent within our society. In our state, this can happen to individuals who were falsely accused or wrongly arrested for these crimes.
A bill allowing for expungement of certain criminal records has come up several times in the Alabama Legislature over the past several years. This year, Roger Bedford first introduced the bill in the Senate. After several amendments by the Alabama Senate, the bill ended up passing 26-3 in a rare moment of bipartisanship. The difficulty will be passing the Alabama House of Representatives and getting signed by Governor Robert Bentley.
Representative England of Tuscaloosa and Representatives Melton and Boyd have proposed the bill in the House. It is currently pending action in the Judiciary committee, but the bill can be pushed along with the proper amount of support from Alabamians.
I urge everyone to call their Alabama Representative and express their support for the expungement bill, House Bill 317. Without action by Alabama citizens, it is likely that the bill will fail to pass for yet another year. Alabamians who have been cleared of a crime deserve to be able to move on from that charge. Without action on bills like this, this will just be another Alabama legislative session filled with embarrassing arguments over passing unconstitutional bills when we can get them to do much better for the citizens of Alabama.
Matthew Bailey is a second-year law student. His column runs biweekly on Thursdays.
