当小约翰尼·沃勒18岁时，他被审判、定罪并被送进了内布拉斯加州的监狱。 He served his time and returned to society, but quickly learned that although he was no longer behind bars, he also wasn’t truly free. 带着犯罪记录生活就像一直背着重物。
“It’s not like you can successfully reintegrate back into society like people tell you,” Waller says. “You’re lucky if you can find a decent job or a place to stay.”
当你必须在每一份工作或住房申请上勾选你曾被判有罪的复选框时，大门就关上了。 That’s why Waller has dedicated his career to helping people open those doors once again. 沃勒拥有学士和硕士学位，是法学院“清除我的记录诊所”的项目经理。
The Clinic, founded in 2017 by retired law school dean, Ellen Suni, advocates for legislative changes to make expungement — the process of sealing past criminal records — more widely available in Missouri. 隶属于该项目的威尼斯人娱乐城消除诊所代表寻求消除的低收入客户。
如果某人符合密苏里州法律的规定，法官可以撤销他们的定罪。 一旦他们的犯罪记录被清除，过去的犯罪记录将不会出现在背景调查中，他们也不需要在申请中披露自己的犯罪记录。
“With the bang of a gavel, you can do all kinds of different things you couldn’t do before because you don’t have to check those boxes, ” Waller says.
沃勒本人在最初定罪22年后，于2018年被判无罪。 这个决定为他提供了继续接受教育、创业和作为一名倡导者的机会，他说，人们离开监狱后经常会受到附带损害。
“Drug charges and theft offenses are the most common expungement cases at the 威尼斯人娱乐城 Expungement Clinic,” says Sydney Ragsdale (J.D. ’18), a Truman Fellow who helps oversee the student lawyers who handle cases through the clinic.
The mission behind the Expungement Clinic’s work has less to do with the details of clients’ past convictions and focuses more on the burdens imposed by those convictions, even years after fines are paid or a prison sentence is completed.
“People are being wrongly held back from living their lives,” Ragsdale says.
Since 威尼斯人娱乐城’s clinic began, its student lawyers have successfully assisted nearly a dozen clients.
其中一位客户是来自纽约的男子，他在一次越野旅行中经过密苏里州时被发现携带大麻。 那次不幸的进站导致了他吸毒的记录，也使他无法得到他需要的升职来养家糊口。
Another client couldn’t rent an apartment or secure a mortgage to buy a house because of a DUI conviction. 过去的错误让他在低收入住房中挣扎求生。
第三位客户是一名前保育员，她在一次实地考察中暂时把一名学生落在后面，被控危害儿童罪。 虽然孩子没有受到伤害，但这个错误让她在经济和情感上挣扎了很多年。
“She was out in the world doing her best,” Ragsdale says. “She loved these kids, but made a mistake most parents have made at some point in their lives.”
As with most clients the clinic represents, a mistake was still wreaking havoc on the woman’s life years later. 幸运的是，就像来自纽约的那个被指控吸毒的男人和被判酒后驾车的男人一样，她被免除了罪状，终于有机会开始新的生活。
“The collateral consequences of convictions are just brutal,” says Suni, who continues to oversee the Clear My Record Project and teaches student lawyers working for the clinic. “There are the obvious things; 人们难以获得工作、住房、公共福利和贷款。 The consequences cut across all areas, such as a parent not being permitted to go on their kid’s school trip. It affects every aspect of their lives.”
当“清除我的记录”项目开始时，苏尼希望密苏里州的删除过程几乎是自动的。 她想也许一个计算机程序可以有效地找到符合条件的客户，并帮助他们完成所需的文书工作，帮助他们重新开始。 But as quickly as that idea arose, it became clear that Missouri’s expungement statute, substantially revised in 2018, was written far too narrowly for such automation.
“The statute was very complex and confusing,” Suni recalls. “It became clear that this attempt to digitize the process to help people who don’t have lawyers wasn’t going to work.”
A key issue was finding anyone who met the law’s narrow qualifications. 例如，只有某些非暴力和非性犯罪才有资格被删除。 此外，法律只允许在一生中取消一项重罪和两项轻罪。 根据2018年制定的法律，在完成重罪判决后需要等待7年或在轻罪后需要等待3年才能申请删除。 此外，有未决案件，即使是交通违规，或欠罚款或费用也会妨碍获得删除。
虽然数以百计的潜在客户迫切需要一份干净的记录才能继续前进，但这些严格的要求使大多数人无法抹去。
“We discovered that very few people were fully eligible,” Suni says.
Suni and others affiliated with the Clear My Record Project began using their experience with clients to push for changes that could open the process to more people and they’ve found some success. For example, the law was amended to shorten the waiting period to three years from seven for a felony, and to one year from three for a misdemeanor, and a few new crimes were made eligible.
苏尼说，这些变化是一种进步，但还需要更多。 她和全州的其他人正在倡导进行更多的立法改革，包括将有资格被定罪的终身限制提高到两项重罪和三项轻罪。 其他潜在的变化包括为16至25岁之间犯罪的人以及吸毒成瘾的人提供更多的回旋余地。
倡导者还在推动废除目前对任何寻求豁免的人征收的250美元附加费。 拉格斯代尔说，这笔费用，加上其他必需的法庭费用，使许多低收入客户无法免除费用，但仍然要为支付食物和住房而挣扎。
“It is way too expensive,” she says.
在未来的道路上，支持者希望看到密苏里州的删除程序自动执行。 一旦某人符合法律规定的资格，州政府就会启动这个程序，不需要律师或法庭文件。
While advocates say the Missouri expungement process is still too complex and narrow, it has improved since 威尼斯人娱乐城’s clinic began. 这家诊所的合格客户越来越多，而且对于数百个潜在病例来说，这个过程也更有效率。
Of the dozen expungements obtained through 威尼斯人娱乐城’s clinic, ten of those were granted during the last six months. In January, four of the clinic’s clients obtained expungement on the same day.
“It was extremely exciting,” says Kylee Gomez, a third-year law student who works as a research assistant at the clinic. “Until that point, we’d only had one or two happen.”
“In every case, expungement is a second chance the client desperately needs,” says Bailey Baker, a second-year law student who also serves as a research assistant in the clinic.
“I’ve seen how deeply the past mistakes someone makes, particularly when they were younger, can haunt them,” added Baker, a former social worker. “Expungement is a way to move on.”
有些人对未来充满希望。 该诊所支持的许多条款在密苏里州参众两院都获得了通过，如果州长签署，这些条款将成为法律。