January 12, 2018
Cleaning Up Your Criminal Background
An infraction you made 25 years ago can crawl back out and haunt you today if you don’t look at expunging your record. A false conviction, police pressuring for an admission of guilt, or a criminal misdemeanor will stay on your record long past its overturn or your release from incarceration. You may even forget about it altogether and move on with your life. However, the minute you must rely on the government for clearance or during a background screening, it’ll all come back.
Expungement
When good people are turned away because of a mistake they made and paid their debt, this is when getting an expungement is necessary.
Missouri Expungement Law
If a certain felony conviction is over 20 years old or a certain misdemeanor is over 10 years old, they might be eligible for expungement. Missouri is a very difficult state to get a record expunged in, but it’s certainly not impossible, especially if that is your one and only offense. Not every crime qualifies for expungement, the list is still short. A common problem is remembering what they were found guilty of 20 to 30 years ago, and they will need a lawyer to discover what the actual conviction is.
Exclusions to the Law
Convictions that cannot be expunged are:
- Class A felony offenses;
- dangerous felonies as defined in section 556.061 of Missouri statutes;
- any offense that requires registration as a sex offender;
- any felony where death is an element of the offense;
- any felony offense of assault;
- any misdemeanor or felony of domestic assault;
- intoxication-related offenses;
- violation of laws regulating operation of a motor vehicle by an individual who holds a CDL;
- or felony offense of kidnapping and a number of other offenses that fall broadly under the category of crimes against persons.