More work needed to get legislators’ support for felony expungement bill

By DAVID FLOYD
50th State Representative

Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015, 10 a.m. — The message he left was not very friendly. He’d been drinking heavily and (as one tends to do who’s had too much to drink) used colorful language to express himself. He was angry that I hadn’t passed a law to permit a process for expungement of Class D felonies. His concluding critique was to place me in the company of politicians who will say anything to get elected; this also was colorfully stated.

Hearing from you is, indeed, the best part of my job.

This message came just a few weeks ago. He didn’t leave his name or a phone number to return his call; he’d called from a bar. I could have done some detective work to discover his identity so I could talk with him face-to-face, but I decided that he preferred our communication be in only one direction. I didn’t take it personally; rather, I saw it as important evidence demonstrating how expungement could have changed his life. And despite three years of effort, my resolve to make that expungement bill into a law was strengthened.

After I published a column on the subject in 2013, I met people who wanted to tell me their stories. They’d made a mistake. They paid a penalty. Most of the time it was marijuana at a young age, sometimes a bad check, usually there was a little jail time. Most had family who loved and supported them through it (and thank God for that.) But each discovered that after all of it was over, a mark remained on them because a felony record never goes away. When you apply for a good job, the background check reveals your past, and in most cases your job application goes to the discard pile. You’re a veteran? Doesn’t matter. You graduated from college? Sorry, the other applicants have one too but they don’t have a felony. So you do the best you can in life.

You get married, raise a family. Can’t get a hunting license because you’re not allowed to own, have in your possession, or even be near a gun (if you want to be real careful.) Can’t teach your son or daughter to hunt. Can’t go on class trips with them. And your job opportunities are limited. For the rest of your life. The only way to clear your record is through a gubernatorial pardon – and those are rare.

The rest of this story is that I already knew several of the people who came to me, they were friends of mine. But I had no idea they had a felony record. So this became more than just principle – it was personal.

Now, I know that not all felons turn their lives around in this way. If a person is going to commit a second felony, he’ll probably do so within three years, almost surely within five. That might be because there is so little opportunity available to him after he’s out of prison and so he keeps hanging in the same bad company; or it might be he doesn’t have good family support. So the bill we’ve written provides that you can’t apply for expungement until about 10 years have passed since you were sentenced for that felony crime. If you commit another one, you’re not eligible to apply.

And even if you are eligible, your application to the court means they will notify the prosecuting office that handled your case, as well as the victim of that crime (if there was a victim.) Then you’ll have your day in court. Let’s say the prosecutor says “Your honor, ‘Tom’ here has lived an exemplary life since that time and we recommend expungement.” But the victim says “Your honor, he stole $1,000 from me but only paid back $200.” Odds are you won’t get your record wiped clean.

There is already in place a process to expunge misdemeanors or violations. Our bill (this year, it’s HB 40) modifies the statute to include minor Class D felonies. We passed a similar bill over to the Senate last year, where it died. HB 40 was heard in the Judiciary committee last week, and it did not pass. I concluded that I need to do a better job, make it more personal for my fellow legislators, so that they can relate to the importance of this bill for many Kentucky families. Did you know that there are almost 95,000 Class D felons in our state?

Passing important legislation requires years of effort. There are many battles in a war, and if you want to win you must keep fighting, and have faith in the rightness of your cause.

I wanted to take that voice mail with me to the Capitol because behind his anger there is such a powerful story. I wanted to play the message on the floor of the House and ask “Will you recognize this cry for help? Can you see how our system keeps people in chains? We rightly demanded a payment for his crime and that debt was paid. Is there ever to be an end… are you blind to his humanity? He has a face! He has children! Won’t you please come with me and help to set him free?”

When I say that hearing from you is the best part of my job, I truly mean it; how can anyone help if you do not ask?

COFFEE WITH DAVE SATURDAY @ TOM PIGS. This Saturday we’ll have “Coffee with Dave” at Tom Pig’s in Bardstown. Senator Jimmy Higdon will be there this time, and we hope to see you there, beginning at 9:00. I’ll buy the coffee.

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