Metropolis officers in Cleveland, Ohio on Wednesday filed motions to expunge greater than 4,000 misdemeanor convictions for previous hashish offenses, making good on a 2020 ordinance to reform town’s hashish coverage.
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb introduced the submitting of the expungement motions at an occasion held on the Cuyahoga County Justice Middle. The mayor, showing with Cleveland assistant chief prosecutor Aqueelah Jordan, council president Blaine Griffin, and legislation director Mark Griffin, informed reporters that it was a historic day for the folks of Cleveland.
“Right now’s occasion exhibits our dedication within the metropolis of Cleveland to advancing legal justice reform,” Bibb told reporters. “But it surely additionally offers people all throughout town and throughout this area a second likelihood at getting a great job and the standard of life that they deserve.”
On the occasion, the officers introduced the expungement motions to the clerks on the Cleveland Municipal Court docket positioned on the county justice middle. The motions cowl 4,077 misdemeanor weed instances for possession of 200 grams (about seven ounces) or much less of hashish relationship again to 2017.
“That is the pure development of what we (at council) needed to see; first to decriminalize, then to have information expunged. Earlier than we handed the laws, we put collectively a working group with activists and legal justice specialists,” Griffin said in an announcement from town council. “As increasingly more states legalized marijuana, we needed to place town in that route. For me, this has at all times been about legal justice reform.”
Reform Ordinance Handed Two Years In the past
Cleveland officers filed the expungement motions in response to a 2020 metropolis council ordinance to reform hashish coverage that eradicated the specter of fines and jail time for possessing lower than 200 grams of hashish. Below Ohio state legislation, possession of as much as 100 grams of hashish carries a nice of as much as $150, whereas possessing between 100 and 200 grams is punishable by as much as 30 days in jail and a nice of as much as $250.
Whereas reviewing previous weed instances, the prosecutor’s workplace recognized 455 people who had been mistakenly charged after the passage of the 2020 ordinance. These expenses had been along with the hundreds of instances since 2017 that prosecutors have decided are eligible for expungement.
“Right now, we’re shifting ahead with a movement to expunge all instances of minor misdemeanor marijuana possession to honor the Metropolis’s laws and remove legal penalties,” mentioned Jordan, who additionally referred to as on the state of Ohio to increase its hashish reform efforts to incorporate leisure hashish. At present, the state has a restricted medical weed program for sufferers with sure qualifying medical circumstances.
Metropolis officers famous that final week, the U.S. Home of Representatives accepted the Marijuana Alternative, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act, a invoice to decriminalize hashish on the nationwide stage and expunge previous federal hashish convictions. However native measures can assist transfer the method alongside.
“We’re seeing progress in Washington on this problem, but it surely’s sluggish. There are quick steps we will take proper now in Cleveland to clear the names of over 4,000 residents who deserve a recent begin,” Bibb mentioned within the assertion from town. “This is only one means we will make progress on legal justice reform to stability the scales and take away limitations to employment and re-entry.”
The expungement motions filed by town will probably be thought of by presiding choose Michelle Earley and different judges of the Cleveland Municipal Court docket. The court docket is predicted to carry hearings on the motions earlier than approving the expungements, which aren’t automated below the brand new ordinance.
“The judges have the suitable to rule on the motions and we are going to respect these rights,” Jordan mentioned. “Our judges are very busy, and we’re going to be very supportive of no matter time they want.”