Partner Profile – Asher Josephs

AZ Expunge - Staff Blog, Partner Profile 0

Partner Profiles

Asher Josephs

“Power of Expungement Makes a Big Impact – On Interns, Too!”

Expungement is a team game! And the Reclaim Your Future team is a diverse, statewide coalition that includes attorneys, organizers, content creators, and expungement interns like Asher Josephs, a student at the University of Arizona who spent his summer at our free legal clinics helping people learn about the expungement process.

“It was crazy to see at all of our events how so many people have had their lives significantly altered for doing something that is now legal.”

“I decided to work as an intern for the coalition because it’s a great cause, and I knew I’d have a fun experience helping people,” said Asher, a 20-year-old law and accounting double major at UofA who interned alongside the folks at Arizona Justice Project. “It was crazy to see at all of our events how so many people have had their lives significantly altered for doing something that is now legal.

“It’s terrible that there are people who still have a marijuana conviction affecting them, and they haven’t been able to move on from it yet,” he said.

Asher’s undecided about whether he’ll become a lawyer himself. But one expungee, who Asher helped at a free Phoenix College legal clinic, certainly showed Asher the impact of the work.

“His marijuana conviction didn’t alter this person’s career path at all. But he did tell me that the record of the conviction continued to weigh on him mentally,” Asher said. “So, seeing the relief wash over him almost right before our eyes when we got him through the expungement process was incredibly rewarding.”

Though he’s back in Tucson now with a 21-credit class schedule, you might catch Asher at an upcoming clinic hosted by our partners at Southern Arizona Legal Aid, Inc.

August 4 2022

Partner Profile – Randy McDonald

AZ Expunge - Staff Blog, Partner Profile 0

Partner Profiles

Randy Mcdonald

“What a Privilege to Help Others Reclaim Their Future!”

We’re proud to introduce you to a key partner, Randy McDonald, the Supervising Attorney at ASU’s Post-Conviction Clinic, which helps people seal marijuana-related convictions or arrests through the process of expungement–for free–but also helps people still in prison for past marijuana convictions finally secure their freedom.

Since first joining ASU’s clinic in 2020 after “suing corporations” for six years, Randy says that he has “seen firsthand the impact that criminal charges can have on a person’s life,” long after their sentence has been served.

“When Prop 207 was passed (legalizing adult recreational marijuana use in 2020), it was important to me to get out there and help people expunge those records and start their lives over.”

“Having a felony on your record can be very harmful and make it harder to get housing, to get a job, or to get certain government services,” Randy says. “So, when Prop 207 was passed (legalizing adult recreational marijuana use in 2020), it was important to me to get out there and help people expunge those records and start their lives over.”

Randy says helping several people regain their freedom after years in prison on harsh sentences enhanced by past marijuana convictions has been especially rewarding.

“The pandemic made it very difficult to meet with clients in person. So, we were exclusively exchanging letters with clients and on phone calls with clients during the worst of it,” Randy says.

“I remember one particular client who we helped with resentencing and eventually with his release from prison–I had never actually met him in person until the day he walked into court for resentencing.

“He started to cry, I started to cry. And he thanked me,” Randy adds. “And I thought, ‘It’s so weird that we are going on this journey with folks we have never met. And also, such a privilege to do it.”

If you have a marijuana-related conviction or arrest, you can get help from the Coalition at our FREE expungement clinic at Phoenix College from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on August 31st.