In the United States, folks accused of crimes get viewed as innocent until they’re proven guilty. This idea is known as the presumption of innocence, and it first got its official stamp in the 1895 case Coffin v. United States. It stands as a key part of how justice works in America. Yet, many often think someone must be guilty just because they’ve been arrested.
A person accused of a crime but does not get a conviction for it still has an arrest on their record, a record that is often publicly available. Such it is that even a person who was falsely accused of a crime, subsequently arrested for it, and then acquitted of that crime could still be denied employment by a prospective employer who does a background check. Presumption of innocence may rule the legal world, but in the social world, being accused of a crime in the first place is usually seen as a stain on reputation.
Alabama has recently taken steps to address this issue in the form of a new law that takes effect on the 7th of July. This law will allow Alabama residents to remove from their record any arrests for non-violent crimes that did not result in convictions. There are restrictions on the length of time that must pass between the arrest and the expunging that vary based both on the nature of the charge and the specific form of resolution of the charge, as well as in some cases the length of time since programs like drug-related rehabilitation or treatment for mental health issues if those were part of the agreement to dismiss charges.