South Carolina General Assembly
107th Session, 1987-1988

Bill 650

                    Current Status

Bill Number:               650
Ratification Number:       148
Act Number                 108
Introducing Body:          Senate
Subject:                   Dispositional powers of the Family
                           Court
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(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

(A108, R148, S650)

AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 7, ARTICLE 9, TITLE 20, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO DISPOSITIONAL POWERS OF THE FAMILY COURT, BY ADDING SECTION 20-7-1335 SO AS TO ALLOW A FIRST TIME NONVIOLENT JUVENILE OFFENDER TO PETITION THE FAMILY COURT FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF HIS JUVENILE RECORD UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

Destruction of juvenile records

SECTION 1. Article 9, Chapter 7, Title 20 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:

"Section 20-7-1335. A juvenile not previously adjudicated delinquent for committing an offense which would have been a crime if committed by an adult, who has been taken into custody, charged with, or adjudicated delinquent for having committed a status offense or a nonviolent criminal offense may petition the family court for an order destroying all official records relating to his being taken into custody, the charges filed against him, his adjudication, and disposition. The granting of the order is discretionary with the court. However, the court may not grant the order unless it finds that the person who is seeking to have his

records destroyed is at least eighteen years of age, has fully and successfully completed any dispositional sentence imposed upon him, and has neither been charged nor is currently charged with committing any additional criminal offenses.

For purposes of this section, an adjudication is considered a previous adjudication only if it occurred prior to the date the subsequent offense was committed.

Under no circumstances is a person allowed to expunge from his record an adjudication for having committed a violent crime, as that term is defined in Section 16-1-60.

If the order is granted by the court, no evidence of the records may be retained by any law enforcement agency or by any municipal, county, or state agency or department. The effect of the order is to restore the person in the contemplation of the law to the status he occupied before he was taken into custody. No person to whom the order has been entered may be held thereafter under any provision of any law to be guilty of perjury or otherwise giving false statement by reason of his failure to recite or acknowledge the charge or adjudication in response to an inquiry made of him for any purpose."

Time effective

SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.