Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

oblarneymcdoodle t1_ja09lek wrote

Reply to comment by Mammoth-Mud-9609 in ELI5. What happens to ‘criminals’ when the law changes and what they were imprisoned for is no longer illegal? by L0rdTeddingt0n

Washington state recently did this (Blake). Retroactively making weed convictions and everything associated with them (LFOs, points etc.) unconstitutional. Legislature is currently working on a bill to lay out how to reimburse everyone affected. (I may have over simplified some of this but basics are correct.)

6

abeorch t1_ja0chji wrote

Im not familiar with the case but generally in constitutional states if a law is ruled as unconstitutional then it is treated as if the law never existed (since it has been found to be invalid) therefore all convictions based on it are considered invalid. This is different to a law being repealed (which the original post refers to)

9

SoNic67 t1_ja2iptl wrote

Free money for former pot dealers. What could go wrong?

1