Bill would allow ``second chance'' for felons

Monday, February 18th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A Henryetta senator known for carrying tough anti-crime legislation is pushing a bill this year that would allow courts to seal the criminal records of a wide range of felons.

As written, the bill would permit a court to expunge the records of felons convicted of such offenses as manufacturing a controlled dangerous substance, injecting opium, or soliciting a minor to cultivate or distribute drugs.

The measure has raised concerns from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and the Oklahoma Press Association.

Sen. Frank Shurden, who won passage of the bill last week in a Senate subcommittee, said he would have the bill changed to remove the more serious offenses.

Shurden said it is his intent to restrict expungement to records of people who become addicted to drugs and alcohol and commit relatively minor nonviolent offenses, such as writing a hot check.

``I'm not interested in helping the drug pushers,'' he said. ``I'm interested in helping those who got caught up in an addiction.''

Many teen-agers and young adults, he said, make mistakes under the influence of drugs and alcohol and wind up with felony convictions that haunt them the rest of their lives.

Removing the stigma, he said, would help many get jobs and become productive citizens.

``There are not too many families now that have not been touched by the drug and alcohol problem,'' Shurden said. ``Some of the leading families of my district have kids with a felony conviction for drugs.

``The main thing I want to do is make it where it is not held against them in employment. Most of our licensure laws prohibit the hiring of a felon, whether it is for a barber, a beautician or anything else.''

Candidates for expungement under Shurden's bill must have gone three years without an arrest, had treatment for drug or alcohol dependency and been alcohol and drug free for three years.

Expungement is possible now if a pardon from the governor is obtained, but Shurden said few are granted. ``They're next to impossible to get,'' he said.

Mark Thomas, executive vice president of the OPA, said his organization has traditionally frowned on bills that allow records to be sealed to the public forever.

``We're always concerned about the rewriting of history,'' Thomas said.

Kym Koch, spokeswoman for the OSBI, said the law enforcement agency is worried it could not handle the extra work the bill might produce for her agency.

``If you just look at felony DUI and felony drug possession, you're talking about 39,000 offenses in 1999,'' she said.

If all those defendants wanted to have their records expunged, she said, ``we'd have to hire 20 more attorneys and find a place to house them.''

``My bill is a work in progress,'' Shurden said, expressing hopes any kinks in the measure can be worked out.

Denying he has mellowed on the crime issue, Shurden is again carrying bills to crack down on sex offenders.

Among his measures is one calling for chemical castration of some sex offenders and another increasing the penalty for first-degree rape.

``I think I might be the best person in the Legislature to carry this type of legislation,'' he said of his expungement bill.

``I'm still real tough against the toughened criminals,'' he said. ``But I do have some sympathy for these people who get caught up in alcohol and drugs and do something foolish.''