LA County May Dismiss 66,000 Cannabis Convictions
The motion spans across 10 cities in the LA county area.
Los Angeles County District Attorney, Jackie Lacey, filed a groundbreaking motion on Thursday, February 13, 2020 to dismiss nearly 66,000 cannabis convictions, dating all the way back to 1961. In 2016, Prop 64 was passed legalizing recreational cannabis use for adults over the age of 21. In 2018, state legislators signed a measure that required California prosecutors to automatically clear cannabis criminal records by July of 2020.
The effort was in partnership with Code for America, a non-profit tech organization, that helped by creating an algorithm that could find individuals in LA county's criminal database that were eligible to have their cannabis related criminal convictions erased under Prop 64. 62,000 of the 66,000 total convictions were felonies, and the remaining 4,000 were misdemeanors. The motion affected individuals in 10 cities across LA county. 2,142 of those convictions will not be erased due to the individual's criminal history.
Superior Court Judge, Sam Ohta, signed the motion on February 13, 2020. This motion helps many individuals across the Los Angeles county area with a fresh start. The District Attorney's office has setup a help line for anyone wondering if their record has been cleared by visiting their website at the L.A. County Public Defender's Office or by calling 323-760-6763.