Expungement & Clemency

Indictable Convictions

A person convicted of an indictable offense may petition five years after the latest of four dates: the most recent conviction, payment of any court-ordered financial assessment, satisfactory completion of probation or parole, or release from incarceration. N.J.S.A. 2C:52-2. Not all offenses are expungable. Those barred include criminal homicide, kidnapping, luring, human trafficking, sexual assault, robbery, arson, perjury, and terrorism offenses. Which subsection a conviction falls under is frequently the whole case.

You may not have to wait the full five years. Where at least four but fewer than five years have run since the most recent conviction, the court may grant the petition in its discretion on a finding of compelling circumstances. The same is true where the financial assessment has been satisfied but five years have not run from the date of satisfaction, if the other timing requirement is met and the petitioner substantially complied with a payment plan. N.J.S.A. 2C:52-2(a). If you are inside that fourth year, the question is worth asking now rather than next year.

Disorderly Persons and Petty Disorderly Persons Offenses

Up to five disorderly persons offenses, five petty disorderly persons offenses, or five in combination may be expunged five years after the latest of the same four dates. N.J.S.A. 2C:52-3. Offenses entered on the same day do not count against that limit, and neither do offenses that were interdependent or closely related in circumstance and committed as part of a sequence of events within a short span.

Drug Convictions

A conviction for the sale or distribution of a controlled dangerous substance, or possession with intent to sell, is presumptively barred. The statute then carves three ways back in: marijuana, where the total quantity was less than one ounce; hashish, where the total quantity was less than five grams; and any controlled dangerous substance where the conviction is of the third or fourth degree and the court finds that compelling circumstances exist. N.J.S.A. 2C:52-2(c). That third exception is the one that gets overlooked, and it is the one that decides most of these petitions.

Clean Slate

Ten years after the most recent conviction, a person may petition to expunge the entire record. Every crime, disorderly persons offense, petty disorderly persons offense, and municipal ordinance violation, regardless of whether he would otherwise be ineligible because of a prior expungement. N.J.S.A. 2C:52-5.3.

Arrests, Dismissals, and Acquittals

A charge that ended in dismissal, acquittal, or discharge without conviction is expunged at the time of that disposition, on the court's own order. N.J.S.A. 2C:52-6. Charges dismissed after completion of pretrial intervention, conditional discharge, or conditional dismissal become eligible six months after the dismissal order; participants in the Veterans Diversion and Mental Health Diversion programs may move at the time of dismissal. If a dismissed charge is still appearing on your record, something did not happen that should have. It is fixable.

Marijuana and Cannabis Records

Convictions for marijuana and hashish offenses predating the 2021 cannabis reform are expunged by operation of law, and any remaining sentence, ongoing supervision, or unpaid court-ordered financial assessment is vacated. N.J.S.A. 2C:52-6.1. Automatic does not always mean accurate. Where the record was not in fact cleared, the remedy is to make the courts and the State Police do what the statute already requires of them.

Pardons

A pardon is the Governor’s act rather than the court’s, and it reaches convictions the expungement statute does not. Executive Order No. 362 directs expedited consideration of certain applications, including those in which more than ten years have passed since the applicant completed his most recent sentence, five years for applicants sixty or older, or who were twenty-five or younger at the time of the offense.

Commutation of Sentence

Clemency is the only relief available to a person still serving. Executive Order No. 362 prioritizes applications from survivors of domestic or sexual violence or sex trafficking who were convicted of an offense against the perpetrator; sentences reflecting a trial penalty disproportionate to the plea that was offered; convictions for conduct now lawful; and sentences that would be materially less severe under current law.

Applications go to the Clemency Unit of the New Jersey State Parole Board and are reviewed by the Clemency Advisory Board, which recommends whether each should be granted; the decision itself remains the Governor's alone. Executive Order No. 362 was issued in June 2024 and its priority categories are executive policy rather than statute.

Restoration of Civil Rights

Separate from both remedies, a person who has been deprived of the right of suffrage or of other civil rights or privileges by reason of a conviction, or upon whom a fine or forfeiture was imposed, may apply to the Governor for their restoration or for remission of the fine or forfeiture. N.J.S.A. 2A:167-5.