San Francisco, CA: The Office of the San Francisco District Attorney has announced that it will automatically expunge over 9,000 marijuana-related convictions.
Last February, city officials announced efforts to proactively review and vacate past marijuana-related crimes. To date, the office has sealed several thousand cases and is taking actions to resentence an estimated 5,000 additional felony cases. On Monday, officials said that they have identified a total of 9,362 convictions eligible for expungement.
"It’s incumbent that we, as law enforcement leaders, continue to evolve how we advance fairness and public safety in our respective communities," San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón said. He added, "It [is] the morally right thing to do."
In October, state lawmakers approved legislation requiring "the Department of Justice, before July 1, 2019, to review the records in the state summary criminal history information database and to identify past convictions that are potentially eligible for recall or dismissal of sentence, dismissal and sealing, or redesignation pursuant to AUMA (the Adult Use Marijuana Act)."
For more information, contact Justin Strekal, NORML Political Director, at (202) 483-5500 or visit California NORML.