Senate Judiciary debates replacing expungement with new sealing regime for deferred sentences

The Senate Judiciary Committee discussed a bill to replace the state’s long‑standing expungement practice for deferred sentences with a new sealing regime during a committee meeting recorded in the transcript.

Matt Valerio, the defender general, told the committee he could not see the policy rationale for eliminating expungement for deferred sentences and described the practice as an established tool for both prosecutors and defenders. "What expungement does is provides people who have kept themselves on the right side of the law after getting based up on the wrong side of the law, the opportunity for a fresh start and a clean slate," Valerio said, adding that expungement has existed in practice since the 1970s and that it produced concrete benefits in other states.

Senator Ruth and other committee members framed the bill as an effort to…