Charleston, WV - Senator Glenn Jeffries (D-Putnam), lead sponsor of Senate Bill 76, the WV Second Chance for Employment Act appeared on WV MetroNews Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval today to discuss the importance of the new law. During the interview, Senator Jeffries noted that the model form from the Supreme Court was not yet available.
“I am pleased to now inform everyone that the model form for reducing a nonviolent felony to a reduced misdemeanor is now available on the West Virginia Supreme Court’s website,” said Senator Jeffries. “I had a great meeting with the Court today and am so glad that they have a form available to help West Virginians who have served their debt to society begin to clean up their records.”
The Supreme Court’s model form is available on the Court’s website by searching “criminal offense reduction” and by going to the court forms page and clicking the link entitled “Forms for Expungement of Criminal Records and Criminal Offense Reduction.” Copies of the forms may also be available in a local county clerk’s office.
“This law was long overdue and I appreciated the hard work of Delegate Pushkin and others in the House of Delegates to make it a reality,” said Senator Jeffries. “West Virginians who have nonviolent convictions in their past now have a clear process that they can follow in order to get a felony conviction lowered to a reduced misdemeanor. I hope this will help improve our state’s workforce participation and help people who have made mistakes in their past put those mistakes further behind them.”
In order to take advantage of the new law, a person must have been free from any criminal conviction for the previous ten years and it must be at least ten years since the person’s sentence or supervision ended. A petition must be filed and notice is required to be presented to numerous interested parties. The Judge must determine whether the petitioner has presented clear and convincing evidence that he or she has reformed and should be permitted to have their nonviolent felony conviction changed to a reduced misdemeanor.
The form petition from the Supreme Court is available here.
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