2013 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 63 - South Carolina Children's Code
CHAPTER 19 - JUVENILE JUSTICE CODE
SECTION 63-19-2050. Petition for record destruction.

(A) A person who has been taken into custody for, charged with, or adjudicated delinquent for having committed a status or a nonviolent offense may petition the court for an order destroying all official records relating to:

(1) being taken into custody;

(2) the charges filed against the child;

(3) the adjudication; and

(4) disposition.

The granting of the order is in the court's discretion. However, a person may not petition the court if he has a prior adjudication for an offense that would carry a maximum term of imprisonment of five years or more if committed by an adult. In addition, the court must not grant the order unless it finds that the person who is seeking to have the records destroyed is at least eighteen years of age, has successfully completed any dispositional sentence imposed, and has not been subsequently charged with any criminal offense.

(B) An adjudication for a violent crime, as defined in Section 16-1-60, must not be expunged.

(C) If the expungement order is granted by the court, no evidence of the records may be retained by any law enforcement agency or by any municipal, county, state agency, or department. The effect of the order is to restore the person in the contemplation of the law to the status the person occupied before being taken into custody. No person to whom the order has been entered may be held thereafter under any provision of any law to be guilty of perjury or otherwise giving false statement by reason of failing to recite or acknowledge the charge or adjudication in response to an inquiry made of the person for any purpose.

(D) For purposes of this section, an adjudication is considered a previous adjudication only if it occurred prior to the date the subsequent offense was committed.

HISTORY: 2008 Act No. 361, Section 2.