Rebecca Hentz v. State of Mississippi
2014 Miss. LEXIS 591
| Miss. | 2014Background
- Rebecca Hentz pleaded guilty in 2000 to one count of attempt to manufacture methamphetamine; other counts were remanded to the file. She received a suspended thirty-year sentence, unsupervised probation, and a fine.
- In 2012 Governor Haley Barbour granted Hentz a "full, complete, and unconditional pardon" for that conviction.
- Hentz filed a motion in state circuit court seeking expungement of her criminal record based on the pardon; the trial court denied the motion.
- Hentz appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court arguing that a pardon should permit expungement because it restores civil rights and, in effect, "blots out" the offense.
- The State (and the Court majority) argued there is no Mississippi statutory authority or precedent that permits expungement of a conviction solely because of an executive pardon.
- The Supreme Court affirmed the trial court: absent statutory authorization, a court may not expunge a conviction record after a gubernatorial pardon.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whether a convicted felon may obtain expungement after receiving a gubernatorial pardon | Hentz: a full pardon "restores" civil rights and "obliterates" the conviction; court should expunge records | State/Court majority: Expungement is statutory; no statute authorizes expungement after a pardon | Denied — courts lack authority to expunge a conviction post-pardon absent statute |
Key Cases Cited
- Caldwell v. State, 564 So.2d 1371 (Miss. 1990) (expungement is statutory and allowed only in limited, legislatively authorized circumstances)
- Jones v. Board of Registrars, 56 Miss. 766 (Miss. 1879) (pardon restores civil rights; language suggesting the pardoned person is "as a new man")
- Ex parte Crisler, 159 Miss. 247 (Miss. 1931) (describing full pardon as absolving legal consequences; applied in context of attorney disbarment)
- Ex parte Garland, 71 U.S. 333 (U.S. 1866) (historical language that a pardon "blots out" guilt; later characterized as dicta)
- Hirschberg v. Commodity Futures Trading Comm’n, 414 F.3d 679 (7th Cir. 2005) (modern authority that a pardon does not expunge a conviction or erase guilt)
- Eubanks v. State, 53 So.3d 846 (Miss. Ct. App. 2011) (Mississippi Court of Appeals rejected equitable expungement where statute does not provide relief)
- Turner v. State, 876 So.2d 1056 (Miss. Ct. App. 2004) (recognizing circuit courts lack inherent power to order expungement beyond statutory scope)
- Nixon v. United States, 506 U.S. 224 (U.S. 1993) (pardon does not overturn a conviction; does not substitute for judicial reversal)