NYC prosecutor’s plan could wipe out 20,000 pot convictions
NEW YORK — Tens of thousands of low-level marijuana convictions could be erased with the OK of Brooklyn’s top prosecutor, under a new plan for wiping records clean of offenses no longer being prosecuted in parts of the nation’s biggest city.
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Friday he is inviting people to request conviction dismissals. He expects prosecutors will consent in the great majority of a potential 20,000 cases since 1990 and an unknown number of older ones.
To Gonzalez, whose office has stopped prosecuting most cases involving people accused of having small amounts of pot, it’s only right to nix convictions that wouldn’t be pursued now.
“It’s a little unfair to say we’re no longer prosecuting these cases, but to have these folks carry these convictions for the rest of their lives,” the Democrat told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday.
Several states have laws allowing for expunging or sealing marijuana convictions in certain circumstances. And prosecutors in San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle — all in states where pot is now legal — have taken steps toward clearing marijuana convictions en masse. California lawmakers approved a measure last month that would require prosecutors to erase or reduce an estimated 220,000 pot convictions. It’s awaiting action from Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.
The Brooklyn initiative envisions a case-by-case wipeout of thousands of convictions obtained under a law that still stands.
New York allows marijuana-derived medications for some conditions, but recreational pot remains illegal, although Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has appointed a panel to draft legislation that could legalize it.
Meanwhile, Gonzalez and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. decided this year to decline to prosecute most misdemeanor pot possession and smoking cases. The men oversee prosecutions in two of the city’s five boroughs.
The DAs said the prosecutions did little for public safety but sometimes a lot of harm — jeopardizing job opportunities, housing, immigration status and more — in the lives of defendants who were overwhelmingly black and Hispanic.
District attorneys in the other three boroughs — the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island — still pursue such cases, however. All five DAs are Democrats.