Hundreds of pot offenses cleared
DA: Charges dismissed or cut for 604 in response to Prop. 64
Marin County District Attorney Lori Frugoli says her office has completed a three-year effort to clear marijuana offenses from defendants’ records.
Charges have been reduced or dismissed for 604 people with marijuana convictions prior to 2017. Prosecutors undertook the project in response to Proposition 64, approved by voters in 2016.
Proposition 64, which took effect in January 2018, legalized certain marijuana offenses and allowed the reduction, dismissal and sealing of many convictions. Offenders can petition to have some crimes reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor, including possession of more than an ounce of marijuana by someone 18 or older.
Frugoli said the local process to clear records began in April 2019 when her office requested conviction data from the California State Department of Justice. Her office separately reviewed its own data to ensure no cases were overlooked.
Some clients had more than one case, and others had multiple marijuana charges. The 604 offenders, who were involved in 514 cases, were eligible for reduction or dismissal based on Prop 64.
Frugoli said cases in 2017 and later “were already covered by enacted legislation.”
Marin County Superior Court approved a series of motions to either dismiss or reduce charges between May and October 2020, and all cases have been processed during the pandemic.
Frugoli said the process took longer than some counties — San Francisco’s was completed in 2019 — because of internal review measures taken after receiving Department of Justice data.
“We also coordinated a procedure with the courts to ensure an orderly process where we did not overwhelm court staff with 600 motions at once,” Frugoli said
She added that her office wanted
to ensure court minutes were updated for each case and to coordinate releasing information with community partners.
“The effect of a conviction on a person’s record can have a multitude of negative effects, including lost job and housing opportunities,” Frugoli said.
Such negative effects are often disproportionately felt by minority communities, as demonstrated by unequal convictions for drug offenses seen in other counties.
For example, although Black residents comprise about 5% of San Francisco’s population, a third of the city’s marijuana-related convictions since 1975 were accrued by Black defendants, then-District Attorney George Gascón said in 2019. Latino residents represent about 15% of the city but 27% of the marijuana convictions.
The American Civil Liberties Union has analyzed more than 6 million arrests between 2010 and 2018 in the United States. The organization said Black people are more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession
than White people in every state, including those that legalized marijuana.
Of the 604 expungements in Marin, about 17% involved Black defendants and about 19% Latino defendants. According to 2020 census data, Marin’s population includes 2.4% Black residents, 18.8% Latino residents and 68.4% White residents, among other groups.
Frugoli said the data are skewed because they only show cases where relief was granted. Data from prior expungements and reductions that were previously granted in the county’s “clean slate” program are not included.
Oakland-based attorney Charles Woodson said his clients, including those in
the North Bay, are relieved by legislative changes like these. He said he is glad to see district attorneys recognize that marijuana convictions are “disproportionately used against people of color” and “should absolutely should be taken off records.”
He pointed to higher numbers of arrests of nonWhite people during stopand-search incidents if marijuana is detected.
“There are a lot of injustices and the system can be very unfair,” Woodson said. “Especially for minorities, those prior convictions are used to increase bail.”
Woodson added that prior drug convictions involving marijuana can increase sentences, and can even double federal drug convictions.
San Francisco attorney John Hamasaki said there has been an over-criminalization of marijuana violations for Black and Latino people since the Clinton administration.
“It allows people to apply for jobs and not have to think, is the employer going to think this of me?” he said.
Hamasaki said he had one client with a series of drug-related arrests who recently cleared his record
and is now in medical school.
“People grow, people rehabilitate themselves,” he said. “It really shouldn’t end your whole future. It shouldn’t stop you from becoming a productive member of society and participating in society.”
Both said prosecutors have the power to change past patterns and policies that perpetuate inequities. Hamasaki said district attorneys have a responsibility to make sure prosecution is “not done in a racially biased manner, or in a manner that does not allow anybody the opportunity to move forward with their life.”
Woodson said, “They need to distribute justice in a more equitable fashion, rather than perpetuating racial stereotypes and biases.”
Defendants with prior marijuana convictions can contact Assistant District Attorney Otis Bruce at 415-473-6450. The Marin County Public Defender’s Office at 415-473-6321 and the New Beginnings Law Center at 415-459-3000 are also participating in the process.
“The effect of a conviction on a person’s record can have a multitude of negative effects, including lost job and housing opportunities.”
— Lori Frugoli, Marin County District Attorney