Who can get a federal expungement or dismissal?
If you have a federal drug conviction (see Situation 1 or 2 in the next question), you may qualify for an expungement or dismissal of your conviction if ALL of the following are true:
- You were convicted of only one drug-related offense.
- You are NOT eligible if you have any other drug-related convictions (state or federal), OR if you have had any previous drug convictions expunged under the statute.[3241]
- You were in possession of only certain types of drugs.
- The federal expungement statute ONLY covers convictions for marijuana, cocaine and cocaine-based substances, heroine, and methamphetamines (along with a few other less common drugs). To be eligible, your conviction must have involved one of these drugs (NOT any other drug).[3242]
- You were convicted of “simple possession” only.
- You are NOT eligible if your conviction was for any other offense besides possession of a small amount of drugs consistent with personal use. This means no sales, transportation, or distribution offenses will qualify.[3243]
- The judge “suspended” entry of judgment of conviction for the offense.
- This means that you were found guilty of the offense, but the judge basically put your conviction on hold, and did not enter it into the official record. (This is to give you a chance to complete probation or a treatment program instead of going to prison.);
- The judge put you on probation for no more than 1 year; AND
- You successfully completed probation with NO violations.