Court Opinion

ID: 9649187
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:44:21.796418+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:08.645618
License: Public Domain

Bois, J.,
dissenting:
The defendant, to be entitled to an annulment of his record of conviction, necessarily must satisfy the requirements of RSA 651:5 I which deals with a sentence of probation or conditional discharge. He argues that because the trial court included a conditional discharge as one element of his sentence the annulment provisions of RSA 651:5 are applicable to him. I disagree.
In State v. Doe, 117 N.H. 259, 372 A.2d 279 (1977), this court rejected a similar argument of a defendant (over twenty-one years of age) who was sentenced to imprisonment and on his release to probation for one year.
We held therein that RSA 651:5 I was not applicable because the sentence contained both imprisonment and probation. We further held that “[i]t is too well established to require elaboration that where a purely statutory remedy, such as in this case, is concerned, courts can neither ignore the plain language of the legislation nor add words which the lawmakers did not see fit to include.” 117 N.H. at 261, 372 A.2d at 280; see 2A C. Sands, Sutherland Statutory Construction § 46.01 (4th ed. 1973).
Although Senator Nixon included the term “fine” as a type of punishment subject to annulment in a speech urging the State Senate to adopt the statute, N.H.S. Jour. 1643 (1971); see Doe v. State, 114 N.H. 714, 717, 328 A.2d 784, 786 (1974); the text of RSA 651:5, which the legislature eventually enacted, does not include the word “fine” within any of the categories which provide for an application for the annulment of a record of conviction.
The plain meaning of RSA 651:5 I and II does not provide for an application for annulment of a record of conviction when a court has imposed a fine as part of the sentence, and therefore, I would hold that the defendant herein cannot avail himself of the statute’s application.
King, J., concurs in the dissent.