Seattle Court Agrees to Clear Past Marijuana Convictions

Judges in Seattle have agreed to clear past misdemeanor convictions for pot possession that were prosecuted before marijuana was legalized in Washington state.

The Seattle Times reports that all seven judges of the Seattle Municipal Court signed an order Sept. 11 setting out a process for vacating the cases.

City Attorney Pete Holmes filed a motion in April asking the court to vacate the convictions. He argued that possessing small amounts of marijuana is no longer illegal and clearing past convictions would right the injustices of a drug war that targeted people of color.

About 542 people could be affected. The ruling covers from about 1996 - when municipal courts, rather than county district courts, began handling those misdemeanors - to 2010 when Holmes became city attorney and stopped prosecuting low-level pot cases entirely.
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Seattle Municipal Court web-site explains what vacating a record means:

Vacating a conviction for a misdemeanor crime means the court determines you meet certain conditions and orders. If you pled guilty to a crime, your plea will be changed to not guilty and then the charges are dismissed. If you were found guilty, the court may set aside the conviction, dismiss the case and vacate the judgment and sentence.

If your record is vacated, your name, the case number, the charge, a "V" for vacated, and, "DV" if the file was related to domestic violence will still show up in the court's information system and online portal. Vacating a record does not remove information from the court's electronic record. The record will remain and is public. The record will be updated to contain information about the vacation of the record.

If you were arrested and fingerprinted, these records are maintained by the arresting agency, the Washington State Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.