MD expands expungement law and parole reforms

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ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Wes Moore on Tuesday signed into law an expansion of Maryland’s expungement process, which proponents have said will help people who have completed their sentences to more easily clear their records.

In his opening remarks for the bill-signing ceremony with the legislature’s presiding officers at the State House, the governor said many Marylanders have a criminal record that follows them for their entire lives, even after they’ve completed their sentence, serving as an albatross tied around their neck.

“They cannot get a loan, they cannot get a home, they cannot get hired, and oftentimes it’s for an offense that they committed years, if not decades, ago,” Moore said. “We have got to confront this myth that every sentence needs to be a life sentence.”

The governor said the expungement reforms, which will begin to take effect on Oct. 1, will benefit those who have “paid their debt to society,” including those who he said cannot seek an expungement because of a “simple, technical violation of their parole.”

The legislation came as a response to a 2022 ruling from the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, now the state Supreme Court, stating that any probation violation means a conviction is no longer eligible for expungement, according to testimony from the Office of the Attorney General.

The court’s ruling in the “Abhishek” case denied an appellant’s petition for expungement because he had violated his probation for cannabis possession, which is now legal in certain amounts in Maryland.

Once the new law takes effect, probation or parole violations can no longer make a petitioner automatically ineligible for an expungement, though they will remain a factor for judicial review, according to the Office of the Public Defender.

The new law will expand the charges eligible for expungement to include misdemeanor offenses under the state’s criminal law articles for credit card theft and driving without a license, and it will prohibit the Maryland Judiciary Case Search from referencing any cannabis charges that Moore pardoned as part of his sweeping order last summer.

The governor has appeared to toe the line in championing progressive criminal justice reforms and promoting rehabilitation programs while also highlighting his administration’s investments in and support for law enforcement agencies and, in some cases, pursuing more tough-on-crime policies.

During Tuesday’s event, he also highlighted a bill that upgrades the penalties and crime classification — from a misdemeanor to a felony — for stealing a firearm and for ghost gun-related offenses.

The event also included a measure that will allow people incarcerated for crimes committed decades ago to petition for a sentence reduction, a hotly contested bill called the Second Look Act that lawmakers passed after debates that featured tears on the House and Senate floors and after Democrats joined Republicans to adopt an exemption for those convicted of murdering a police officer or other first responder in the line of duty.

Under the Second Look Act, people who’ve been incarcerated for at least 20 years for a crime they committed between the ages of 18 and 25 would be permitted to petition for a reduced sentence.

Those who’ve been registered as sex offenders or who received a life sentence without the possibility of parole wouldn’t be eligible to petition for a reduced sentence.

The governor signed an expansion of geriatric and medical parole opportunities for prison inmates, which will require the Maryland Parole Commission to consider an inmate’s age and the likelihood of recidivating or posing a threat to public safety in determining whether to grant a parole request.

Maryland law allows for geriatric and medical parole, but lawmakers and attorneys have said that the state’s parole commission rarely grants such requests.

The governor also signed into law new limits on institutions’ financial liability for claims under the 2023 Child Victims Act, which the legislature passed after the Office of the Attorney General published a report alleging decades of abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

A wave of lawsuits against schools, state agencies and other institutions is expected before June 1, when the damages for which victims are eligible are slashed by more than half.