Oklahoma Clean Slate Summary

Legislation passed: May 2, 2022. H.B. 3316

Effective date: November 1, 2022.

Implementation date: November 1, 2025

Appropriation: In 2023, the legislature appropriated one-time costs of $5M – $5.3M for updates to the Computerized Criminal History (CCH) system along with approximately $3M to add new positions. In FY2025, the legislature granted $2.5M for recurring funding for CCH. The state also received $1M in funding from their NCHIP grant for the CCH rewrite along with additional funding for a contractor (Mission Critical Partners (MCP)) from a NARIP grant.

Other relevant legislation:

In 2022, HB 3024 authorized expungement for up to two felony charges dismissed after deferred judgment or sentencing (2022). 22 Okla. Stat. Ann. § 18(A)(14).

In 2024, SB 1770 added pardoned adult convictions to the category of “clean slate eligible” cases, but limited “clean slate eligible” dismissals, misdemeanor deferred adjudications, and misdemeanor convictions to those newly defined in § 18(B)(2) as a “single-source record” i.e., a “criminal history record from this state that consists of an Oklahoma arrest record only.” SB 1770 also distinguished between expunged records that are to be “fully sealed” and those that are to be “partially sealed.” § 18(B)(1). Effective date: November 1, 2024.

“A fully sealed expunged record shall not be available to the public or to law enforcement. Such records may be retained in the state criminal history repository but shall only be accessible to designated employees of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation for research and statistical purposes. A partially sealed expunged record shall not be available to the public but shall be available to law enforcement agencies for law enforcement purposes.”

The records to be “fully sealed” after expungement are acquittals, convictions reversed on appeal, cases involving factual innocence, uncharged arrests, pardoned juvenile adjudications, and cases where all charges were dismissed and the person has no prior felony conviction, as authorized under § 18(A)(1)-(3), (5)-(7). All other expunged records (including those for pardoned offenses) are to be “partially sealed” so that they remain available to law enforcement and may be used in subsequent prosecutions.  § 18(D).  

The 2022 “clean slate” law became effective November 1, 2022, and the expungement of “clean slate eligible” cases will begin three years after that date (November 1, 2025).  The procedures are spelled out in the law, and include:

• a process for identifying eligible convictions, a 45-day period for the prosecutor to object (including objections based on failure to pay restitution), and
• expungement by the court without requiring an individual petition. 

No provision is made in the law for notifying individuals whose records have been expunged, though the court is also authorized to make procedural rules for Clean Slate implementation which may address the notice issue.

Records are Expunged (Sealed). Expungement is defined to mean “the sealing of criminal records, as well as any public civil record, involving actions brought by and against the State of Oklahoma arising from the same arrest, transaction or occurrence.” 22 Okla. Stat Ann. § 18(B).  

“Any record ordered to be sealed pursuant to this section, if not unsealed within ten (10) years of the expungement order, may be obliterated or destroyed at the end of the ten-year period.” 22 Okla. Stat Ann. § 19(N).  

Eligibility Criteria: It is estimated that approximately 100,000 Oklahomans are eligible for expungement. (https://arnallfamilyfoundation.org/expungement-in-oklahoma-explained/)

• Non-Convictions:
  • Acquitted, reversal of conviction on appeal, factual innocence, full pardon by the governor, arrested and never charged, under 18-years of age and received a full pardon, arrested and charged with one or more misdemeanor or felony crimes but all charges have been dismissed and no misdemeanor or felony charges are pending,
  • Charged with a misdemeanor but the charge was dismissed after successful completion of a deferred judgement or delayed sentence and the person has never been convicted of a felony and there are no pending charges and at least 1 year has passed since the charge was dismissed, or
  • Charged with a non-violent felony and the charge was dismissed following successful completion of a deferred judgement or delayed sentence and the person has never been convicted of a felony and no misdemeanor or felony charges are pending and 5 years have passed since the charge was dismissed.
  • The person has been charged or arrested or is the subject of an arrest warrant for a crime that was committed by another person who has appropriated or used the person’s name or other identification without the person’s consent or authorization
• Misdemeanor Convictions: The person was convicted of a misdemeanor offense, the person was sentenced to a term of imprisonment, a suspended sentence or a fine in an amount greater than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00), the person has not been convicted of a felony, no felony or misdemeanor charges are pending against the person and at least five (5) years have passed since the end of the last misdemeanor sentence.
• Felony Convictions:
  • The person was convicted of a nonviolent felony offense, the person has not been convicted of any other felony, the person has not been convicted of a separate misdemeanor in the last seven (7) years, no felony or misdemeanor charges are pending against the person and at least five (5) years have passed since the completion of the sentence for the felony conviction.
  • The person was convicted of not more than two felony offenses, none of which is a felony offense listed in Section 13.1 of Title 21 of the Oklahoma Statutes or any offense that would require the person to register pursuant to the provisions of the Sex Offenders Registration Act, no felony or misdemeanor charges are pending against the person, and at least ten (10) years have passed since the completion of the sentence for the felony conviction.
  • The person was convicted of a nonviolent felony offense which was subsequently reclassified as a misdemeanor under Oklahoma law, the person is not currently serving a sentence for a crime in Oklahoma or another state, at least thirty (30) days have passed since the completion or commutation of the sentence for the crime that was reclassified as a misdemeanor, any restitution ordered by the court to be paid by the person has been satisfied in full, and any treatment program ordered by the court has been successfully completed by the person, including any person who failed a treatment program which resulted in an accelerated or revoked sentence that has since been successfully completed by the person or the person can show successful completion of a treatment program at a later date.

Agencies Involved:

• Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) (Criminal History Records Repository)
• Oklahoma Administrative Office of the Courts
• District Attorneys Council
• Police Chiefs Association and Sheriffs Association

Approach

1. On a monthly basis, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (Bureau) shall identify cases that are clean slate eligible by conducting a search of the criminal history repository records of the Bureau;
2. The Bureau shall, on a monthly basis, provide a list of clean slate eligible cases to the prosecuting agency and the arresting agency;
3. The prosecuting agency, arresting agency, and the Bureau may, no later than 45 days from the day on which the Clean Slate eligibility notice is transmitted, object to an automatic expungement and such objection shall be transmitted to all parties. An objection may be made for any of the following reasons:
   1. After reviewing the agency record, the agency believes the case does not meet the definition of a clean slate eligible case,
   2. The individual has not paid court-ordered restitution to the victim, or
   3. The agency has a reasonable belief, grounded in supporting facts, that an individual with a clean slate eligible case is continuing to engage in criminal activity, whether charged or not charged, within or outside the state.
4. If an agency objects for a reason described above within 45 days of the day on which the notice is transmitted, the record shall not be expunged. Once a year, the Bureau shall submit a report to the Legislature with a list of all cases where a record was not expunged pursuant to this paragraph;
5. After 45 days pass from the day on which the Clean Slate eligibility notice is sent, the Bureau shall provide to the courts a list of all cases where responses from all parties were received and no parties objected. The court shall review this list and provide to all agencies that have criminal history records a signed expungement order for all cases approved. Upon receipt of a signed expungement order, each agency shall seal the relevant records.
6. The Bureau and the Oklahoma Supreme Court may promulgate rules to govern the process for automatic expungement of records for clean slate eligible cases.

If an objection is filed within 45 days based on one of the above grounds, the record “shall not be expunged.” §19(B)(4). If no objections were received within the 45 days, the Bureau forwards the list to the courts, which is reviewed, and if approved, a signed expungement order is entered and forwarded to all agencies to seal the records. §19(B)(5).

Reported/anticipated challenges:

• There are 15 different paragraphs in legislation detailing eligibility, so the process is complicated.
• There is no language about fines and fees, so that consideration is not being addressed currently.
• Oklahoma is currently working with vendors to rewrite its CCH system and build Clean Slate capabilities to identify eligible records. The CCH rewrite is a 15-month process which a short time period for making all of the system enhancements to support Clean Slate implementation.