PROVIDENCE -- The state's public defender says the defense bar disagrees with and is disappointed in a decision by the Rhode Island Supreme Court last week that narrows the eligibility of defendants who are seeking to wipe their criminal histories clean.
Last Friday, the state's highest court said that people who pleaded guilty or no-contest and received deferred sentences are not entitled to an automatic exoneration and sealings of their court records if they stay out of trouble for five years -- unless their plea deals were entered into after June 25. 2010.
A law enacted by the General Assembly then provides for such automatic sealing, even for repeat offenders or someone who's committed a violent crime. But the high court said the law does not apply retroactively.