AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 39 and Title 40, relative to expunction of certain offenses.
Summary
HB1081 would revise Tennessee’s expunction law by changing the waiting periods a person must satisfy before petitioning to have certain convictions expunged. Under the bill, a person seeking expunction of a misdemeanor or Class E felony would need to wait at least three years after completing the sentence; a Class D felony would require a six-year waiting period; and a Class C felony would require a ten-year waiting period. The bill also updates the waiting periods for petitions involving multiple offenses, tying eligibility to the most recent offense and preserving the same three-, six-, and ten-year structure depending on the highest-level offense involved.
The measure is limited to expunction timing and does not expand the categories of offenses eligible for expungement. It would amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 40, Section 40-32-101, and take effect July 1, 2025, if enacted. In practical terms, it would affect people with qualifying criminal records who are seeking to clear those records, as well as courts and clerks who process expunction petitions.
Impact
HB1081 would amend Tennessee’s criminal record expunction statute to establish longer, offense-specific waiting periods before a petition may be filed for certain misdemeanors and felonies. It would change the eligibility timing in Tennessee Code Annotated § 40-32-101 for single-offense and multiple-offense petitions, but it would not alter the underlying offenses that may be expunged or the general expunction process. The bill would primarily affect individuals with criminal convictions seeking record relief, along with the judicial and administrative systems that handle expunction petitions.
Sentiment
The available voting history suggests the bill did not have strong support in committee, as it failed in the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee by a vote of 2 yeas to 7 nays. No committee transcript is available, so there is no recorded floor or committee debate to indicate broader support or opposition arguments. Based on the vote, the overall sentiment appears unfavorable or at least insufficiently supportive to advance.
Contention
The main point of contention appears to be whether the bill’s revised waiting periods are appropriate for people seeking expunction relief. Because the bill lengthens and standardizes the time a person must wait after completing a sentence, opponents may have viewed it as making record clearance harder or slower, while supporters may have seen it as a measured approach to expungement eligibility. The recorded committee vote indicates the proposal faced significant resistance in the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee.