Expungement Reform in Arizona: The Empirical Case for a Clean Slate
Sonja B. Starr* Full Article. Introduction In the past several years, dozens of states have adopted or expanded laws providing for expungement of some adult criminal convictions.[1] Several states have recently passed groundbreaking “Clean Slate” legislation, which makes expungement automatic for those who meet the legal requirements.[2] Arizona, currently, is one of the holdouts to this trend—it not only has no automatic expungement law but indeed does not even allow expungement by petition. Although Arizona has a procedure to “set aside” a conviction,[3] this procedure does not seal the record and does not give the individual the right to refuse…