The last few weeks, we’ve talked about ways the law allows a person with a criminal record to get employed without that record being a barrier. This policy is aimed at promoting rehabilitation of the citizen.
A Certificate of Good Conduct allows one to apply for employment with many government jobs that they might otherwise be barred from, and a Certificate of Relief from Disabilities allows one to secure required licenses they might otherwise be barred from.
Suppose you got a criminal conviction, but later, the government that prosecuted you agrees it made a woeful mistake and got the court to dismiss the conviction. That nasty record of arrest and conviction is still there for all to see, and there are obstacles under the law seeking redress from the state of Illinois for its wrongful prosecution. The answer to this is a Certificate of Innocence.
A Certificate of Innocence is a declaration by the state that you are officially exonerated and a conclusive declaration that you did not commit the crime in question. It forces automatic expungement of arrest records and sealing of police and circuit court files of the wrongful conviction.
The General Assembly has stated that anybody who was convicted of a crime or ruled a delinquent and subsequently served any part of a sentence in a state prison, county jail, county juvenile detention facility or Illinois Youth Center; is on parole or probation; or is registered as a sex offender for one or more felonies in the state of Illinois that they did not commit can file for this certificate.
It has further stated that innocent people who have been wrongly convicted or judged delinquent of crimes in Illinois have been frustrated in seeking legal redress due to a variety of substantive and technical obstacles in the law, and should therefore have a way to obtain a finding of innocence so that they can sue for compensation in the Illinois Court of Claims (the place to sue the state for wrongful injury it caused). Also, the way the law is currently written, it seems a person has to get a pardon from the governor before having a right to try to seek compensation for a wrongful conviction.
So, unless the governor pardons someone, the only way they can clear themselves of the conviction and be able to sue for wrongful conviction is to file a petition asking a judge for a Certificate of Innocence.
If one is granted, the record of the arrest is expunged (wiped out entirely, as if it never existed) from the official records of the arresting authority, and the records of the circuit clerk and Illinois State Police are sealed until further order of the court upon good cause shown or as otherwise provided by the judge.
The name of the defendant, or respondent in a juvenile-delinquency proceeding, is then obliterated from the official index kept by the circuit clerk. The court must enter the expungement order regardless of any prior convictions or delinquency adjudications.
Now, you might ask, why is the conviction only sealed (barred from public viewing) but kept internally with police agencies? Apparently, the Legislature thought it important that, for the purpose of sentencing for any subsequent felony or conviction for any subsequent offense, the Department of Corrections has access to all records pertaining to that individual, to serve as reminder of how they previously behaved in prison.
To get the certificate, you have to prove the following to a judge:
1. You were convicted of one or more felonies, sentenced to prison and served all or part of the sentence.
2. Your conviction was reversed or vacated and the charge dismissed.
3. You were innocent of all charged offenses.
4. You did not by your own conduct voluntarily cause or bring about your conviction.
You’ve got two years from the date of dismissal of a criminal case or acquittal to file for a Certificate of Innocence.
By the way, if you plead guilty to a charge but the state later agrees to dismiss the case because it made a mistake in charging you, you don’t qualify for the certificate. The Illinois Supreme Court just ruled that a guilty plea puts the kibosh on such a request because of that fourth requirement, that your own voluntary conduct did not cause your conviction. Pleading guilty is a voluntary conduct causing your conviction, the justices ruled.
Sometimes the hammer of justice hits the wrong nail. A Certificate of Innocence is the claw on the back of the hammer that can pull that nail out of the rotted wood of injustice.