State Rep. Tedd Nesbit, R-8th, introduced a bill to automatically expunge criminal records of people who have been unconditionally pardoned or fully acquitted of criminal charges.

Nesbit, the primary sponsor of the bill, was joined Thursday by Rep. Joanna McClinton, D-19th, and advocates and legal experts at a news conference in Harrisburg to urge the General Assembly to pass the bill.

House Bill 440 would provide an opportunity to expunge a person’s record if they have been unconditionally pardoned or fully acquitted of all charges. The commonwealth would receive notice of a potential expungement and would have an opportunity to object and conduct a hearing.

“It’s plain and simple: individuals (who) are fully acquitted or pardoned of crimes should not have to be forced to carry the burdens and stigma that are associated with a criminal record,” said Nesbit. “That’s what this bill seeks to do — improve our expungement laws and remove barriers to employment.”

Many employers want to know if job applicants have criminal records, said Steven C. Braden, a private investigator and owner of Check Your Mate Investigations in Butler.

“We do a lot of background checks for a lot of employers,” Braden said. “I don’t always hear the outcome. I just report what I find. They’re running the background checks for a reason.”

Sometimes, his clients will contact him after he completed background checks to thank him for discovering that applicants who reported not having criminal histories actually had been charged with crimes, he said.

Clients occasionally tell him that they liked the applicant, but wouldn’t hire him or her because of their history of crime, he said, adding that Nesbit’s bill could help some people find a job.

“If that goes through, it will change a lot of people’s lives by giving them a second chance,” Braden said.

The severity or type of crime for which a person was convicted can be a factor when an employer considers hiring someone, he said.

A company looking to hire a driver might not consider someone with a history of driving under the influence convictions and a retailer might pass on a person with a history of thefts or burglaries.

“It really depends on the business and employer,” Braden said.

With his background as a special Deputy U.S. Marshall, corrections officer in the county prison and a Marine in the Marine Corps Elite Fleet Anti-Terrorist Security Team, Braden said he has hired former inmates who stayed out of trouble after being released from jail.

“If they’ve kept clean, I’ve given them a chance. If I’m dealing with a certain demographic and I need someone to fit in — they know where to find people. They know how to dig,” Braden said.

Conversely, he said he wouldn’t hire anyone with a criminal history for a security job.

Advocates said Nesbit’s bill would help reform the state criminal justice system.

“Whenever we can make government more efficient, we should absolutely seize the opportunity to do so,” said Brandon Flood, Pennsylvania Board of Pardons secretary. “Simply put, a pardon constitutes the commonwealth’s foremost act of forgiveness for those convicted of a crime in Pennsylvania. Therefore, the notion of expungement being a process that is wholly distinct from the pardon process is not only antiquated, it speaks to our government’s unwillingness to make the most efficient use of modern technology and taxpayer dollars.”

In March, the Board of Pardons helped to ease the application process for a pardon by unanimously voting to eliminate $63 in application fees that previously have been collected.