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Mike was a crazy guy, so much so that we often referred to him as “Crazy Mike.” I met him on New Year’s Eve in 1981, when he was working with the N.C. Forest Service in Murphy, and we proceeded to get into many misadventures, as he was usually running his mouth when he was not running toward wildfires.
Thankfully, none of those local misadventures crossed the line into criminal territory. The same couldn’t be said 20 years later, when addiction took over Mike’s still-crazy life, resulting in a non-violent felony drug arrest and three-month jail stay in Cartersville, Ga.
When he got out from behind bars, my family and I welcomed Mike into our non-crazy home in Lake City, Fla. He cleaned up his act. He got a good job. He met a good woman. But he couldn’t get rid of the albatross of that arrest, which kept coming back up to smack him down every time he tried to improve himself.
Mike’s story came back to me when I read last week about a state Senate committee advancing a bill that would allow more offenses to be removed from a person’s state criminal record. According to a report by The Center Square, state law today allows people to seek expungement for more than one nonviolent misdemeanor or for one nonviolent felony, with some exceptions, but Senate Bill 301 would allow more felonies to qualify for expungement.
“Oftentimes in practices, what you would see is that someone that gets a felony normally, it’s not one isolated felony,” Sen. Danny Earl Britt Jr. (R-Columbus) told The Center Square. “Oftentimes, it’s a patch that they’re going through. Maybe they have one felony and have a second felony three or four years later. Now they can’t get either felony off their record, even if it’s been 20-25 years later.”
SB 301 would allow a person to petition the court to remove a second, nonviolent crime off their record once 20 years have passed since the conviction or sentence completion. It would change vehicle burglary’s classification from a violent felony to a nonviolent felony, making it eligible for expungement – much to the delight of at least one area resident who deserves it.
“[Sen.] Kevin Corbin (R-Franklin) has a good constituent in his district ... who was convicted of [burglary] of a motor vehicle when he was 19 years old,” Britt told The Center Square.
“He’s a Rotarian and a business owner has not been charged with or convicted of anything since he was 19, but since that [burglary] of a motor vehicle is classified as a violent offense, that individual, who’s now 42 years old, cannot get that expunction from a crime that was committed when he was 19.”
The General Assembly passed and Gov. Roy Cooper signed the Second Chance Act in June, and SB 301 expands those needed reforms. It must be approved by a full vote in both chambers of the General Assembly before being sent to Gov. Roy Cooper for final approval. The provisions in the bill take effect Dec. 1.
This measure is one of several being pursued in the General Assembly this spring that just make sense. It’s nice to see Corbin and others compassionately advocating for folks who need a second chance – even “Crazy Mike.”
David Brown is publisher & editor of the Cherokee Scout. You can reach him by phone, 837-5122; email, dbrown@cherokeescout.com; or Twitter @daviddBstroh.