Detroit, MI - OnFriday, October 15, 2021, Attorney General Dana Nessel joined with the Detroit Pistons and Detroit’s Project Clean Slate to help 75 city residents expunge their criminal records.
The Pistons hosted the Department of Attorney General and Project Clean Slate in Heritage Hall at Little Ceasar’s Arena for an expungement event where residents of Detroit that registered through the city’s Project Clean Slate initiative will arrive for scheduled appointments to meet with attorneys and finalize expungement applications.
The Pistons donated 150 tickets for tonight’s preseason game against the Philadelphia 76er’s to the 75 participants and their guests. Nessel and Piston’s Coach Dwane Casey recorded a public service announcement on expungements that will play in Little Caesar’s Arena during tonight’s game.
“I am overwhelmed by the enthusiasm shown by the Piston’s and Detroit’s Project Clean Slate for wanting to help Michigan residents expunge their criminal records,” Nessel said. “This partnership and tonight’s event will help to change the lives of 75 Michigan residents and their families. We all make mistakes in life, but those mistakes should not have to follow us around for a lifetime. Michigan’s law recognizes that those who have paid their debt to society deserve a chance at a fresh start.”
Michigan’s new expungement law – known as the Clean Slate law – took effect on April 11, 2021. The law created a specific process to expunge certain offenses that are no longer crimes in the wake of the passage of Proposal 1 in November 2018 that legalized the possession and use of recreational marijuana for adults in Michigan. Qualifying misdemeanor marijuana convictions may be expunged by individuals who complete a required application process.
The new expungement law also expands the number of other misdemeanor and felony convictions a person may expunge. An individual convicted of up to three felonies, except life offenses and other serious felonies, and an unlimited number of certain misdemeanors can, with some exceptions, file an application with the convicting court to expunge all his or her convictions. Individuals with more than three felony convictions on their criminal record are not eligible to seek expungements under the new law.
Information regarding Michigan’s Clean Slate law and the expungement process is available via the Department of Attorney General website.