South Carolina Code 63-19-2050. Petition for expungement of official records
(a) being taken into custody;
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 63-19-2050
- Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
- Court: means the family court. See South Carolina Code 63-19-20
- Department: means the Department of Juvenile Justice. See South Carolina Code 63-19-20
- Judge: means the judge of the family court. See South Carolina Code 63-19-20
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Status offense: means an offense which would not be a misdemeanor or felony if committed by an adult including, but not limited to, incorrigibility or beyond the control of parents, truancy, running away, playing or loitering in a billiard room, playing a pinball machine, or gaining admission to a theater by false identification. See South Carolina Code 63-19-20
(b) the charges filed against the person;
(c) the adjudication; and
(d) the disposition.
(2) A person may not petition the court if the person has a prior adjudication for an offense that would carry a maximum term of imprisonment of five years or more if committed by an adult.
(B) A prosecution or law enforcement agency may file an objection to the expungement. If an objection is filed, the expungement must be heard by the court. The prosecution or law enforcement agency’s reason for objecting must be that the person has other charges pending or the charges are not eligible for expungement. The prosecution or law enforcement agency shall notify the person of the objection. The notice must be given in writing at the most current address on file with the court, or through the person’s counsel of record.
Text of (C) effective July 1, 2019. See Editor’s Note for contingency.
(C)(1) If the person has been taken into custody for, charged with, or adjudicated delinquent for having committed a status offense, the court shall grant the expungement order. If the person has been taken into custody for, charged with, or adjudicated delinquent for having committed multiple status offenses, the court may grant an expungement order for the multiple status offenses.
(2) If the person has been taken into custody for, charged with, or adjudicated delinquent for having committed a nonviolent crime, as defined in § 16-1-70, the court may grant the expungement order. For the purpose of this section, any number of offenses for which the individual received youthful offender sentences at a single sentencing proceeding for offenses that are closely connected and arose out of the same incident may be considered as one offense and treated as one conviction for expungement purposes.
(3) The court shall not grant the expungement order unless the court finds that the person is at least eighteen years of age, has successfully completed any dispositional sentence imposed, has not been subsequently adjudicated for or convicted of any criminal offense, and does not have any criminal charges pending in family court or general sessions court. If the person was found not guilty in an adjudicatory hearing in the family court, the court shall grant the expungement order regardless of the person’s age and the person must not be charged a fee for the expungement. An adjudication for a violent crime, as defined in § 16-1-60, must not be expunged.
(D) If the expungement order is granted by the court, the records must be destroyed or retained by any law enforcement agency or municipal, county, state agency, or department pursuant to the provisions of § 17-1-40.
(E) The effect of the expungement order is to restore the person in the contemplation of the law to the status the person occupied before being taken into custody. No person to whom the expungement order has been entered may be held thereafter under any provision of law to be guilty of perjury or otherwise giving false statement by reason of failing to recite or acknowledge the charge or adjudication in response to an inquiry made of the person for any purpose.
(F) For purposes of this section, an adjudication is considered a previous adjudication only if the adjudication occurred prior to the date the subsequent offense was committed.
(G) The judge, at the time of adjudication, shall notify the person of the person’s ability to have the person’s record expunged, the conditions that must be met, as well as the process for receiving an expungement in the particular jurisdiction pursuant to this section.