{"id":2851,"date":"2023-05-30T13:00:14","date_gmt":"2023-05-30T13:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/azexpunge.org\/?p=2851"},"modified":"2023-06-12T01:37:49","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T01:37:49","slug":"arizona-court-of-appeals-decision-marijuana-sales-convictions-can-be-expunged-per-prop-207","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azexpunge.org\/es\/2023\/05\/30\/arizona-court-of-appeals-decision-marijuana-sales-convictions-can-be-expunged-per-prop-207\/","title":{"rendered":"ARIZONA COURT OF APPEALS DECISION: Marijuana Sales Convictions Can Be Expunged, Per Prop 207"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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PHOENIX, ARIZONA\u2013MAY 30, 2023\u2013<\/strong>Today, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that prior convictions and arrests for the sale of marijuana are also eligible for expungement per the passage of Proposition 207 in 2020, a decision that could positively impact the lives of thousands of Arizonans with a marijuana-related record. Before this decision, it was unclear whether individuals charged with possession of marijuana-for-sale were eligible for expungement.<\/p> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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In State v. Sorensen<\/em>, Appeals Court Presiding Judge Brian Furuya concluded that Arizona Revised Statute (ARS) \u00a7 36-2862(A)(1) makes \u201csale-related marijuana offenses\u201d eligible for expungement, thus overruling the lower court\u2019s denial of the petition for expungement that was submitted by the Maricopa County Attorney\u2019s Office (MCAO) on behalf of the litigant. On July 15, 2021, MCAO filed a petition to expunge the 2014 conviction on behalf of the litigant, but that petition was denied by the court because the court ruled that the type of offense was ineligible for expungement.<\/p> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\u201cIn sum, we conclude \u00a7 36-2862(A)(1) authorizes expungement of sale-related marijuana offenses when they otherwise satisfy the statute\u2019s eligibility requirements,\u201d Furuya wrote.\u00a0<\/p> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n\t\u201cAs a result, the court erred by denying the State\u2019s expungement petition.\u201d <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\u201cToday\u2019s decision is a great embodiment of the will of the Arizona voters who elected to undo the harms caused by the overpolicing of marijuana laws,\u201d said Martin Hutchins, lead attorney and program manager for the Reclaim Your Future campaign, a state-funded expungement effort that includes free legal aid providers in Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff. \u201cThere are many people who were charged with for-sale offenses before the passage of Prop 207 even when they had minimal amounts of marijuana because other factors led officers to assume the person was some sort of dealer. The state and the cannabis industry is now making millions on marijuana sales, so it\u2019s fortunate that people who were believed to have committed a sales-related offense can now benefit from expungement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will allow them to mitigate the generational impact of their involvement with the criminal legal system,\u201d added Hutchins, \u201cwhich affects Black and Brown people and people of lower socioeconomic status at disproportionate rates.\u201d<\/p> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The passage of the 2020 voter initiative, Proposition 207, legalized adult recreational use of marijuana in Arizona and created a pathway to expungement. The Department of Health Services has since provided funding from medical marijuana sales to the Reclaim Your Future campaign for education and community outreach related to Prop 207.<\/p>\n

The campaign is organized by a coalition of seven legal aid and community outreach nonprofits\u2013Phoenix-based Arizona Justice Project, the Arizona State University Post-Conviction Clinic, and Community Legal Services; the Tucson-based University of Arizona Civil Rights Restoration Clinic, Just Communities Arizona, and Southern Arizona Legal Aid, Inc.; and Flagstaff-based DNA Peoples\u2019 Legal Services\u2013to provide free resources and assistance related to expungement.<\/p> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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_________________<\/p> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The Reclaim Your Future campaign is organized by the Arizona Marijuana Expungement Coalition and is funded by <\/em>the Arizona Department of Health Services to help people seal their marijuana-related conviction histories. Our <\/em>Coalition is composed of community legal services and advocacy organizations from across Arizona.<\/em><\/p> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t <\/div>\n\t \t<\/div>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t \n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX, ARIZONA\u2013MAY 30, 2023\u2013Today, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that prior convictions and arrests for the sale of marijuana are also eligible for expungement per the passage of Proposition 207 in 2020, a decision that could positively impact the lives of thousands of Arizonans with a marijuana-related record.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"PHOENIX, ARIZONA\u2013MAY 30, 2023\u2013Today, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that prior convictions and arrests for the sale of marijuana are also eligible for expungement per the passage of Proposition 207 in 2020, a decision that could positively impact the lives of thousands of Arizonans with a marijuana-related record.","_seopress_robots_index":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,25,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-blog","category-press-release","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""," cat-15"," cat-25"," cat-47"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/azexpunge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/azcourt-1.jpg","builder_content":"

PHOENIX, ARIZONA\u2013MAY 30, 2023\u2013<\/strong>Today, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that prior convictions and arrests for the sale of marijuana are also eligible for expungement per the passage of Proposition 207 in 2020, a decision that could positively impact the lives of thousands of Arizonans with a marijuana-related record. Before this decision, it was unclear whether individuals charged with possession of marijuana-for-sale were eligible for expungement.<\/p>\n

In State v. Sorensen<\/em>, Appeals Court Presiding Judge Brian Furuya concluded that Arizona Revised Statute (ARS) \u00a7 36-2862(A)(1) makes \u201csale-related marijuana offenses\u201d eligible for expungement, thus overruling the lower court\u2019s denial of the petition for expungement that was submitted by the Maricopa County Attorney\u2019s Office (MCAO) on behalf of the litigant. On July 15, 2021, MCAO filed a petition to expunge the 2014 conviction on behalf of the litigant, but that petition was denied by the court because the court ruled that the type of offense was ineligible for expungement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn sum, we conclude \u00a7 36-2862(A)(1) authorizes expungement of sale-related marijuana offenses when they otherwise satisfy the statute\u2019s eligibility requirements,\u201d Furuya wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cAs a result, the court erred by denying the State\u2019s expungement petition.\u201d\n

\u201cToday\u2019s decision is a great embodiment of the will of the Arizona voters who elected to undo the harms caused by the overpolicing of marijuana laws,\u201d said Martin Hutchins, lead attorney and program manager for the Reclaim Your Future campaign, a state-funded expungement effort that includes free legal aid providers in Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff. \u201cThere are many people who were charged with for-sale offenses before the passage of Prop 207 even when they had minimal amounts of marijuana because other factors led officers to assume the person was some sort of dealer. The state and the cannabis industry is now making millions on marijuana sales, so it\u2019s fortunate that people who were believed to have committed a sales-related offense can now benefit from expungement.<\/p>

\u201cThis will allow them to mitigate the generational impact of their involvement with the criminal legal system,\u201d added Hutchins, \u201cwhich affects Black and Brown people and people of lower socioeconomic status at disproportionate rates.\u201d<\/p>\n

The passage of the 2020 voter initiative, Proposition 207, legalized adult recreational use of marijuana in Arizona and created a pathway to expungement. The Department of Health Services has since provided funding from medical marijuana sales to the Reclaim Your Future campaign for education and community outreach related to Prop 207.<\/p>

The campaign is organized by a coalition of seven legal aid and community outreach nonprofits\u2013Phoenix-based Arizona Justice Project, the Arizona State University Post-Conviction Clinic, and Community Legal Services; the Tucson-based University of Arizona Civil Rights Restoration Clinic, Just Communities Arizona, and Southern Arizona Legal Aid, Inc.; and Flagstaff-based DNA Peoples\u2019 Legal Services\u2013to provide free resources and assistance related to expungement.<\/p>\n

_________________<\/p>\n

The Reclaim Your Future campaign is organized by the Arizona Marijuana Expungement Coalition and is funded by <\/em>the Arizona Department of Health Services to help people seal their marijuana-related conviction histories. Our <\/em>Coalition is composed of community legal services and advocacy organizations from across Arizona.<\/em><\/p>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/azexpunge.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/azexpunge.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/azexpunge.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azexpunge.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azexpunge.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2851"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/azexpunge.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2944,"href":"https:\/\/azexpunge.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851\/revisions\/2944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azexpunge.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/azexpunge.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azexpunge.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azexpunge.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}