HB 940 Mississippi House · 2025 Regular Session

Voting rights and felony expungement; person may have voting rights restored and certain felony records expunged after five years.

HB 940 automatically expunges certain felony convictions from public records five years after completing all sentence terms (including fines and probation), restoring voting rights for eligible individuals. It directly affects Mississippi residents convicted of specific non-excluded felonies who have fully satisfied their sentences. Key provisions require circuit clerks to notify the Mississippi Department of Public Safety of expungement orders, which must remove the person's criminal history from state databases within 45 days. The bill excludes violent crimes, drug trafficking, firearm offenses, sex offender violations, and other serious offenses from automatic expungement.

Issues: ✓ Criminal Justice

Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 17, 2025 Last action Feb 13, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

As Introduced → Current version · 8 edits

MODERATE

This bill significantly expands expungement rights for Mississippi felons by allowing automatic expungement of one felony conviction after five years, rather than requiring a petition. It also clarifies that expunged records can only be used for first-offender status determinations and removes certain serious crimes from the list of expungeable offenses. The bill adds new requirements for the Mississippi Criminal Information Center to forward expungement orders and remove records from databases within 45 days.

Scope change

The bill changes from a petition-based expungement system to an automatic expungement system for eligible felons, while maintaining petition-based expungement for misdemeanors and arrests that didn't result in conviction.

ELIGIBILITY

Changed felony expungement from requiring a petition to automatic expungement five years after completing all sentence terms and conditions.

Added specific list of non-expungeable felonies including crimes of violence, arson, trafficking, DUI, firearm possession, sex offender registration violations, voyeurism, witness intimidation, and embezzlement over $5,000.

REQUIREMENT

Requires circuit clerks to forward certified expungement orders to the Mississippi Criminal Information Center within 45 days.

Requires Mississippi Department of Public Safety to remove expunged records from central criminal database within 45 days of receiving certified order.

ENFORCEMENT

Clarified that expunged records can only be used to determine first-offender status and habitual offender status, not for other purposes.

TECHNICAL

Added provisions for Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) compliance by law enforcement agencies by December 31, 2025.

FISCAL

Created Information Exchange Network Fund to support web-based information sharing network for law enforcement data exchange.

DEFINITION

Defined 'automatically' as initiated by the court without requiring a petition from the convicted person.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 4, 2025

Lower · Passed

Title Suff Do Pass Comm Sub

lower

Jan 17, 2025

Committee

Referred To Constitution

lower

1 primary · 2 co-sponsors