CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming House of Representatives passed House Bill 212 on a third reading vote of 41-19 on Wednesday, March 17.
The legislation would shorten the waiting period for people convicted of misdemeanors or felonies to have these expunged from from criminal records.
Under existing Wyoming law a person who has plead guilty or no contest or has been convicted of a crime must first have their sentence expire and complete any probationary periods or programs imposed by the court and must wait the following lengths of time before they can petition the court to have their record expunged:
- wait five years to have a misdemeanor expunged
- wait ten years to have a felony expunged
Under House Bill 212, those waiting periods would be as follows:
- wait three years to have a misdemeanor expunged
- wait five years to have a felony expunged
The House’s 41-19 vote was as follows:
- Ayes: ANDREW, BAKER, BANKS, BLACKBURN, BROWN, BURT, CLIFFORD, CONNOLLY, CRAGO, DUNCAN, EKLUND, GREEAR, HALLINAN, HAROLDSON, HARSHMAN, HENDERSON, HUNT, KINNER, BARLOW, LARSEN, L, LAURSEN, D, MARTINEZ, NICHOLAS, OAKLEY, OBERMUELLER, OLSEN, OTTMAN, PAXTON, PROVENZA, ROSCOE, SCHWARTZ, SHERWOOD, STITH, SWEENEY, WALTERS, WESTERN, WHARFF, WILLIAMS, WILSON, YIN, ZWONITZER
- Nays: BEAR, BURKHART, CLAUSEN, EYRE, FLITNER, FORTNER, GRAY, HEINER, JENNINGS, KNAPP, MACGUIRE, NEIMAN, NEWSOME, O’HEARN, SIMPSON, SOMMERS, STYVAR, WASHUT, WINTER
The legislation has moved to the Senate for consideration and was assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. The changes would take effect July 1 should the bill become law.
The legislation is sponsored by:
- Representative(s) Provenza, Burt, Clifford, Olsen and Wharff
- Senator Salazar
