DeSantis vetoes bill offering second chances for criminal record expungement

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday vetoed a bill that would allow adults to get their criminal record expunged even if they had an expungement as a juvenile.

Under current Florida law, someone cannot get their criminal record expunged as an adult if they had an offense scrubbed as a juvenile. The bipartisan bill, HB605, would give someone a second chance, so long as they weren’t charged for the previous crime as an adult. It was approved nearly unanimously in both the House and the Senate.

DeSantis did not detail why he rejected the bill in his veto letter. His office did not immediately return a request for comment.

In 2021, DeSantis vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have expunged juvenile criminal records for people who completed a diversion program, saying he vetoed it out of concern for public safety.

In 2022, DeSantis signed a tweaked version of the bill he vetoed. That bill excluded “forcible felonies” such as murder, manslaughter, carjacking, etc., from being eligible for expungement.

This year’s bill, HB605, would apply only to people who were arrested but had charges dropped, who weren’t charged by prosecutors or who were found not guilty. People who had their charges dismissed because they were found incompetent to stand trial would not be able to apply for expungement under the bill.

Rep. David Smith, R-Winter Springs, said in May he sees criminal record expungement as a workforce issue, and the bill would allow people to “work at the highest level they’re capable of.”

He said he had spoken with employers who supported the bill, hoping it would ease some worker shortages.

“These are people who have never been convicted of a crime in Florida,” Smith said at the time.

After DeSantis vetoed the bill, Smith sent a text to the Tampa Bay Times that said, “I’m disappointed that HB605 was vetoed, but remain committed to good justice reform policy that gives deserving Floridians second chances.”

DeSantis also vetoed SB1478, which encouraged alternative sanctioning programs for low-risk probation violations.