If I get my felony reduced under Prop. 47, can I also get it expunged?

Possibly. Generally, if you served any time in state prison for a felony conviction, you cannot get your conviction expunged (“dismissed” is the legal term).^[3102] However, many lawyers believe that this is an oversight by the drafters of Prop. 47, and feel that if your felony conviction is eligible to be reduced to a misdemeanor under Prop. 47, it should be eligible for expungement (like most misdemeanors) as well. Some lawyers have had success getting discretionary expungements for Prop. 47 convictions under California Penal Code section 1203.4a (which allows expungement of misdemeanor convictions with sentences other than probation).^[3103]

IMPORTANT: PROP. 47 & FEDERAL SENTENCES:

!

Even though Prop. 47 only applies to state convictions, it may still help you if you are serving time for a federal conviction. If your federal sentence was increased because you had a prior state conviction, and that state conviction can be reduced to a misdemeanor under Prop. 47, that conviction should no longer have as much impact on your federal sentence, which may mean that your total federal sentence can be reduced.^[3104]If you are serving a federal sentence and you have prior state convictions, it is recommended that you contact the federal defense lawyer who represented you, the federal public defender, or the county public defender where you were convicted immediately.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON PROP. 47:

The California Courts has added new information to its website^[3105] explaining Proposition 47, including:

A list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) such as, “What is the procedure for obtaining reclassification of a crime?” http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/Prop47FAQs.pdfProp. 47 facts and information in English and Spanish, available here: http://myprop47.org/ A clickable county map to easily locate contact information for your local county Public Defender’s offices and county courthouses, available here: http://www.safeandjust.org/county-map/

1. ³¹⁰²

   Cal. Penal Code § 1203.4. ↑

2. ³¹⁰³

   Interview with Eleanor Miller, attorney, Pepperdine Legal Aid Clinic (Feb. 26, 2015); Email from Eliza Hersh, Attorney, Clean Slate Practice, East Bay Community Law Center, Berkeley, CA (Apr. 16, 2015). ↑

3. ³¹⁰⁴

   Email from David Wasserman, Deputy Federal Public Defender, Federal Public Defender, Central Dist. of Cal. (Mar. 17, 2015). ↑

4. ³¹⁰⁵

   See Judicial Council of Cal., “Proposition 47: The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act,” http://www.courts.ca.gov/prop47.htm. ↑