20th expungement clinic by criminal court clerk to be held in South Memphis Saturday

Lucas Finton, Memphis Commercial Appeal
·2 min read
The Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk's Office will host its 20th expungement clinic at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church Saturday.
The Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk's Office will host its 20th expungement clinic at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church Saturday.

The Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk's Office will host another expungement clinic Saturday, offering a chance for people with criminal convictions to wipe their records clean.

The clinic, which will be the clerk's offices' 20th, will take place Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church, located at 620 Parkrose Rd. It will feature employment opportunities from the Memphis Area Transport Authority, FedEx and First Student, a school transportation service.

The Shelby County Office of Re-Entry, Olympic Career Training Institute, and Hope Works will have booths to provide information about their work, and the Memphis branch of the NAACP, the oldest civil rights group in the country, will be on-site to provide voter registration.

There will also be food trucks, the Shelby County Clerk's Office said in a press release.

Since September 2018, there have been over 7,000 expungements in Shelby County.

What to know about expungements in Shelby County

Not all charges are able to be expunged, and someone can only have two convictions, aside from traffic violations, in Shelby County or any other jurisdiction to be eligible.

Some class C, D and E felonies, along with some misdemeanor convictions are eligible to be expunged. To have them expunged, someone must have completed their prison sentence, probation or parole sentences, paid any fines and completed any community service assigned to them at sentencing.

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At least five years need to have passed for class E felony convictions to be expunged as well. Class C and D felony convictions require 10 years to have passed.

To have your record expunged, you also need to bring proof that any fines have been paid, along with photo identification or a government-issued ID.

A copy of the petition to have your record expunged is available on the Shelby County District Attorney's website, which also includes a list of convictions that can be expunged.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk to host Memphis expungement clinic