Opinion ID: 2627850
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Nevada's constitutional and statutory scheme governing pardons and record expunction

Text: In Nevada, the Pardons Board's constitutional power to grant pardons and commutations of sentences is exclusive. Nev. Const. art. 5, § 14. The Nevada Constitution provides that [t]he governor, justices of the supreme court, and attorney general, or a major part of them, of whom the governor shall be one, may ... grant pardons, after convictions. Id. Article 5, Section 14 of the Nevada Constitution specifically requires the Governor to be involved in the pardoning process as part of the executive function but is silent as to many of a pardon's effects, including the availability of record expunction. In furtherance of this constitutional provision, NRS 213.090 states that [a] person who is granted a full, unconditional pardon by the Board is restored to all civil rights and is relieved of all disabilities incurred upon conviction. No other constitutional or statutory provision addresses the effects of a pardon. The Nevada Constitution does not expressly address the expunction of criminal records. In the absence of a specific constitutional limitation to the contrary, the power to enact laws is vested in the Legislature. Nev. Const. art. 4, § 1; see Cramer v. Peavy, 116 Nev. 575, 582, 3 P.3d 665, 670 (2000). The Legislature has addressed the expunction of criminal records in NRS 179.245. [2] Although NRS 179.245 generally grants the district court discretion to seal records of criminal conviction, it expressly prohibits the sealing of records pertaining to a sexual offense: A person may not petition the court to seal records relating to a conviction of a crime against a child or a sexual offense. NRS 179.245(5). NRS 179.245(5) is silent regarding whether a pardon may nevertheless require sealing a sex offender's record. Resolving this question requires us to determine the scope of the pardoning powerparticularly, whether a pardon erases the offender's guilt and the historical fact of the crime, or merely relieves all conviction-imposed civil disabilities. In addressing the scope of the pardoning power in Nevada, we begin by examining our precedent. Because our jurisprudence does not resolve the question of whether a pardon includes the attendant right to seal a criminal record, we consider the United States Supreme Court's precedent, caselaw from the United States Courts of Appeals, and finally, other states' jurisprudence.