Missouri circuit courts have cleared more than 100,000 marijuana charges from people鈥檚 criminal records so far 鈥� a mandate that was a big for those who voted to pass the constitutional amendment that legalized recreational marijuana in 2022.
However, court officials say it鈥檚 hard to determine how many more charges are left because many court records are not digitized.
Missouri court officials are set to request another $3.7 million to complete marijuana expungements in the coming budget year, making their case Wednesday to a House appropriations .
By law, any revenue the state collects from taxes on recreational marijuana sales, along with fees the businesses pay, must first go towards the state鈥檚 costs of regulating the program. Then it goes to expenses incurred by the court system for expunging certain marijuana offenses from people鈥檚 criminal records.
Last year lawmakers signed off on $4.5 million for state courts to pay their employees overtime or to hire temp workers to complete the required by law. They approved an additional $2.5 million in a on May 5.
Circuit courts must request funds to reimburse their expenses for completing expungements from the , which oversees the special assistance program.
So far, the committee has given $4.2 million to the county courts, said Beth Riggert, communications counsel of the Missouri Supreme Court. And the committee has allocated the funds to any circuit court that has requested it, she said.
鈥淪ome circuit courts have advised they have not requested special assistance funds because they did not have current court clerks willing or able to work overtime,鈥� Riggert said, 鈥渁nd/or have been unable to find qualified individuals to provide special assistance because the analysis required is complicated and better done by experienced personnel, such as retired clerks.鈥�
As of Jan. 2, Missouri courts have granted 103,558 expungements. Out of all the counties, Greene County has received the most funding, nearly $940,000, and has completed the most expungements at 4,306.
After Greene, the counties that have completed the most expungements are not necessarily the largest counties or the ones that have received the most money.
The second highest number is 3,515 from Laclede County, which has a population of 36,000. The county has received a little more than $35,000 from the special assistance program.
In third place is St. Louis County, the state鈥檚 largest county with more than a million people, where court officials have processed 3,479 expungements. The county has received just over $135,000. The court has reviewed 11,300 files, a spokesman for the 21st Circuit Court said.
Franklin County, which has a population of 104,000, is fourth, completing 3,200 expungements and receiving about $53,000. Franklin is just ahead of Jackson County, which has a population of 717,000. Jackson has completed 2,900 and received nearly $195,000.
How far along are the courts?
Greene County Circuit Clerk Bryan Feemster said he brought on four experienced retired clerks in February to work part-time on expungements and, 鈥渢hey hit the ground running.鈥� Their work has been guided by a list of pre-screened cases, compiled by the Office of State Court Administrator.
The office searched for several criminal charge codes that potentially could involve marijuana and provided that list to the courts. The clerks must read through each case on the list thoroughly, he said.
鈥淵ou have to look at every count in the case and see whether it actually had to do with marijuana or not,鈥� he said.
Feemster submits timesheets and supporting documentation to the office, which then provides payment to employees on their paychecks for the expungement work.
He鈥檚 hired additional two people to embark on the heavy lifting of paper boxes and going through thousands of paper files that can鈥檛 be pre-screened by the state. Those six clerks are dedicated to expungements.
鈥淭hey don鈥檛 do anything else,鈥� he said.
During the 2022 campaign in support of the recreational marijuana ballot measure, supporters touted 鈥渁utomatic expungements鈥� 鈥� meaning people who have already served their sentences for past charges don鈥檛 have to petition the court and go through a hearing to expunge those charges from their records.
The courts must locate their records and make it as if their past marijuana charges never existed.
However, court clerks say . It鈥檚 a labor-intensive process that requires someone with legal experience to look through court files.
And that鈥檚 particularly the case with paper records, Feemster said, because it鈥檚 all manual.
鈥淔rom 1989 back, we鈥檙e going through every single criminal record to find out whether there鈥檚 something in there that might qualify,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd it is, as you might imagine, very slow and tedious.鈥�
While Greene County has a team of retired clerks who Feemster was able to recruit, other county clerks say they have one or two extra people helping complete the task.
Marcy Anderson was appointed to serve as Johnson County鈥檚 circuit clerk in July, and she inherited the expungement task. She said she has a judge and a retired clerk who come to help out as often as they can, in addition to what her regular team can accomplish.
鈥淚 have not done any kind of research to see how far along we are,鈥� Anderson said. 鈥淲e just continue to do it every day.鈥�
Johnson County has a population of 54,000, and her team has completed 529 expungements, as of Jan. 2, receiving nearly $18,000 from the special assistance program.
However her office, like every other county statewide, is simultaneously working on a large redacting project that鈥檚 required now that people can access court records on CaseNet.
Both the redacting and expungement processes require extra help that she currently doesn鈥檛 have, but 鈥渕ore funds and more people鈥� would be helpful.
In Jackson County, court clerks have reviewed more than 20,000 files that include both felony and misdemeanor drug charges, said Valerie Hartman, spokeswoman for the 16th Judicial Circuit Court. The court has expunged nearly 3,000 charges.
Some of those cases reviewed were related to marijuana, but many were not, she said.
The court reviewed cases from 1989 through 2022 using data provided by the Office of State Courts Administrator, the Missouri Corrections Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol, she said. All files that contained drug charges were included in the review.
Now the court is researching how to access old criminal databases, in order to identify and review additional paper case files, Hartman said.
鈥淲e have no information,鈥� she said, 鈥渘or an estimate on how many additional drug cases await our review.鈥�
