by David Moffatt

Created on: June 20, 2007

I would not be shocked at all by the number of people with criminal records in my locality or state. Many, on the other hand, would be shocked to know how many with criminal records have never committed a crime. By some estimates, as many as 30% of those now in prison are innocent.

Several reasons exist for this. The first and most obvious is economic. Many Americans cannot afford the thousands of dollars required to retain a capable attorney for a criminal case of any significance. They get public defenders. Public defenders do not defend anyone-they process cases. They are underpaid, usually backlogged to a ridiculous extent (in most major cities, if you are arrested and cannot make bail or pay for an attorney, you may well spend a year in jail before your case ends up in court). Many public defenders are not terribly motivated to act on behalf of their clients. Instead, they form quasi-partnerships with prosecutors and their relationships with clients consist of shoving a plea "bargain" in front of their faces and asking them to sign (more than 75% of criminal cases in this country are resolved by plea bargain). Regardless of the reason, if you are on the lower end of the economic scale in this country, once arrested, you're going to end up with a record no matter what you've done or not done.

In the current political climate, anyone who is angry with another can accuse them of using drugs, child molestation, harassment, domestic abuse, or any number of other things without fear of repercussions. Many county or district attorneys have "no drop" policies with regard to anything resembling a domestic case. "Exes" of both genders routinely punctuate the end of a relationship with a phony police call, and under a "no drop" policy, the case goes to court. When the state's hand picked doctor finds a "suspicious" scratch on your daughter's leg or a social worker gets her to talk about how daddy let her sit on his lap-presto, instant sex offender. There is no practical defense to such accusations.

Should the victims of such outrages be forced to live with a paper trail for the remainder of their lives? Of course not. If anything should be done about the current system of criminal record expungement, it should be made more accessible to those who have records. The court petition required should be something a reasonably intelligent individual can fill out on his or her own-much as one now does for conciliation court. And courts should be obligated to investigate the circumstances of the original conviction and rule accordingly. NO ONE who was convicted on the basis of an accusation unsupported by any physical evidence should be required to bear the burden of it for life. The unjust conviction was bad enough. If we cannot change the past, we do have an obligation to set matters straight in the present.

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