2023 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 29 - Law Enforcement
Article 3A - Criminal Record Expungement
Section 29-3A-8 - Expungement of arrest and conviction records; procedure.
A. If a person was charged with an offense involving cannabis that is no longer a crime on June 29, 2021 or that would have resulted in a lesser offense if the Cannabis Regulation Act [26-2C-1 to 26-2C-42 NMSA 1978] had been in effect at the time of the offense, whether or not the person is convicted, all public records held by a court or an agency of the state or a local jurisdiction that relate to the person's arrest or conviction shall be automatically expunged two years after the date of the person's conviction or the date of the person's arrest if there was no conviction. If the person is or was under eighteen years of age at the time of the arrest or conviction, the public records under this section shall be retained for two years or until the person is eighteen years of age, whichever comes first, and shall then be automatically expunged. Automatic expungement under this section applies to public records involving only cannabis and cannabis paraphernalia charges and requires destruction of the records.
B. The administrative office of the courts shall implement a procedure allowing persons charged with offenses eligible for automatic expungement under this section to verify whether automatic expungement has occurred and request expedited automatic expungement if eligible charges have not yet been expunged.
C. If an arrest or conviction involved cannabis and non-cannabis charges, a person may request expungement of eligible cannabis charges as defined in Subsection A of this section by the administrative office of the courts through the procedure implemented in Subsection B of this section.
D. Requests for expungement to the administrative office of the courts from persons charged with offenses eligible for automatic expungement shall remain confidential and are not subject to disclosure.
History: Laws 2021 (1st S.S.), ch. 3, § 5; 2023, ch. 74, § 1.
ANNOTATIONSThe 2023 amendment, effective June 16, 2023, provided that automatic expungement applies to public records involving only cannabis and cannabis paraphernalia charges and that automatic expungement requires destruction of the records, required the administrative office of the courts to implement a procedure allowing persons charged with offenses eligible for automatic expungement to verify whether their charges have been expunged, provided that if an arrest or conviction involved cannabis and non-cannabis charges, a person may request expungement of eligible cannabis charges through an administrative process through the administrative office of the courts, and required that requests for automatic expungement remain confidential; in Subsection A, after "no longer a crime on", deleted "the effective date of the Cannabis Regulation Act" and added "June 29, 2021", after "if there was no conviction", deleted "provided that if the arrest or conviction included multiple charges, only the portions of the public records related to the cannabis charge shall be expunged", and after "shall then be automatically expunged", deleted "provided that if the arrest or conviction included multiple charges, only the portions of the public records related to the cannabis charge shall be expunged. The public records shall be removed from all statewide criminal databases. The supreme court shall promulgate rules to implement the provisions of this section" and added "Automatic expungement under this section applies to public records involving only cannabis and cannabis paraphernalia charges and requires destruction of the records."; and added Subsections B through D.
