Court Opinion

ID: 9483640
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:27:22.08425+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:45.069974
License: Public Domain

STAPLETON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
When Congress adopted the Youth Corrections Act, courts had been setting aside convictions for centuries, and I believe the concept of setting aside has a well-understood meaning in the law. When a conviction is set aside, it is rendered without legal effect. So far as I have been able to ascertain, the setting aside of a conviction has never been thought to require the destruction or isolation of the court records evidencing its original entry. I think it reasonable to infer that Congress had this common understanding of “set aside” in mind when it enacted the YCA. Moreover, as Judge Campbell persuasively demonstrates in his opinion for the court in United States v. Doe, 732 F.2d 229 (1st Cir.1984), the legislative history supports this view of the statute. For the reasons set forth in that opinion, I respectfully dissent.