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Chicago prosecutor to vacate 1,000 marijuana convictions

Published:Thursday | December 12, 2019 | 10:25 AM
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx speaks during a press conference in Chicago after Foxx filed motions to vacate more than 1,000 low-level cannabis convictions, Wednesday, December 11, 2019. (Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

CHICAGO (AP) — The top prosecutor in Illinois’ largest county on Wednesday filed motions to vacate more than 1,000 low-level marijuana convictions, kicking off the process of clearing tens of thousands of convictions.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s motions are the first step in a plan to expunge convictions for possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana, then permanently remove them from criminal records. Recreational marijuana will be legal in Illinois starting January 1.

Foxx presented the first of the petitions to Chief Judge Timothy Evans in a court on the Chicago’s Southwest Side.

Evans granted the request to expunge the convictions from court records.

“Today, we made history and took the first step in the single largest and most equitable piece of criminal justice reform Illinois has ever seen,” Foxx said in a statement.

The effort to expunge records in minor marijuana cases is required by the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act.

Technology developed by a non-profit organization called Code For America is already being used elsewhere, most notably in California, to clear thousands of convictions.

Foxx’s office will use the same technology to evaluate eligibility and remove minor marijuana convictions from people’s records at no cost to them and, in many cases, without their knowledge.

The defendants will be notified by the court clerk’s office via email or by a letter that the convictions have been expunged.

The people whose cases are being expunged include those who were convicted of misdemeanours, or Class 4 felonies, the lowest category of felony in Illinois.

Anyone convicted of possessing more than 30 grams must apply individually if they want to have their records expunged.

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