EDITORS NOTE: FOX4 reported earlier that the number of people who have petitioned are waiting to get expunged. The story has been corrected to say the number of people who have petitioned are either waiting to get expunged or have already been expunged. FOX4 regrets the error and apologizes for the mistake.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Circuit clerks have a statewide deadline that says they must expunge misdemeanor charges related to less than three pounds of marijuana by June 8, but circuit clerks say the deadline is unrealistic.
In November, voters passed Amendment 3, which would allow for thousands of Missourians with marijuana misdemeanors on their record to get automatic expungements.
The action also allows for individuals currently serving prison time for a marijuana related offense to file a petition for expungement of their record.
Over 46,000 marijuana cases have already been expunged statewide, data shows – possibly more, depending on how a criminal case was charged.
“We cannot meet that deadline, will not meet that deadline, it is not physically possible to meet that deadline,” Bryan Feemster, Greene County circuit clerk, told FOX4 in May.
Data from the state shows Jackson County has expunged or is considering expunging 17 cases from individuals currently serving prison time for a marijuana misdemeanor, more than any other Missouri county in the state.
Jackson County ranks 16th out of 110 Missouri counties with the highest number of expungements, 1,042, preceded by counties like Buchanan, Greene, St. Charles and more.
Buchanan County has seen the highest number of marijuana misdemeanor expungements since the passing of Amendment 3 with 2,140 – nearly 51% more expungements than Jackson County.
One county clerk FOX4 spoke to said that they, along with others clerks, are struggling to meet the deadline, that they were “doomed from the start.”
“There is, at this point, not an end in sight but we’re going to keep working at it,” Feemster told FOX4 in May.
Feemster previously told FOX4 the delay is largely linked to the fact that employees have to sift through every case file, dating back to the early 1970s, to see if there are charges to expunge, a tedious and time-consuming task.
Donna Drake, spokesperson for the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department, said in an email that law enforcement no longer uses marijuana misdemeanors on an individual’s record as a consideration for probable cause or reasonable suspicion during a traffic stop.
This means an individual whose expungement is delayed shouldn’t be seriously impacted.
“I think the reality of it is there are probably some [cases] that get missed or don’t hit that deadline just because of how many there have been in the entire history of Missouri,” Justin Ortiz, a Kansas City, Missouri attorney, told FOX4 in May.
Valerie Hartman, spokesperson at the Jackson County Circuit Court, said individuals with misdemeanor offenses that have completed their sentences or are currently on probation are not required to file a petition for expungement.
Those individuals’ cases are automatically expunged.
But for those currently serving time for a marijuana offense related to less than 3 pounds of marijuana, they must file a petition for expungement consideration.
There is no deadline to file a petition. You can file a petition for expungement on the Missouri Courts website.
