More than 9,300 marijuana convictions will be expunged from an individual’s records, a San Francisco District Attorney said Monday.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, District Attorney George Gascón’s office used an advanced open-source computer algorithm to identify cases that were eligible for expungement.
It’s been three years since California officially and fully legalized recreational marijuana use in the state. Not only was it a major movement for the government to monitor and monetize marijuana production, but it also called for justice for those who have been imprisoned for marijuana-related crimes. Now, people will have the opportunity to have their records expunged or to be re-sentenced for marijuana-related convictions. According to The Hill, the 9,362 eligible cases were found with the help of the nonprofit advocacy group Code for America. The organization has been working to find these cases since 1975.
“It’s incumbent that we, as law enforcement leaders, continue to evolve how we advance fairness and public safety in our respective communities,” Gascón said Monday. “I hope that our success with Code for America can act as a catalyst for other leaders looking to engage in similar innovative and out-of-the-box methods to reform and rethink what our criminal justice system looks like.”
Gascón says the cases will include misdemeanors and felonies to be re-classified or completely dropped. Gascón will soon present the cases identified as eligible to a judge in the coming weeks to be approved, The Hill reports. San Francisco is the most recent city to make the move, following behind Colorado and Oregon.
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