Legal Question in Criminal Law in New York

Re: Does the Statue of Limitations apply?

Your husband has already been tried and convicted so the statute of limitations is no longer an issue. He has become a fugitive from justice, and the passage of time alone will never relieve a fugitive of that status.

I am not a New York lawyer, but I can't imagine that New York law would permit your husband to expunge a conviction when he has yet to finish his sentence. California certainly wouldn't allow it. And if your husband was hoping that a California court would expunge his New York conviction he can forget about it; no state can alter a decision of a different state's courts.

Even where the applicant is eligible, he has no automatic right to expungement. Proving his eligibility is the first step, but he also must show that he has changed his ways. Someone with an open 12-year-old probation violation is not likely to persuade anyone on this score. In fact, applying for an expungement would make his whereabouts available to the police and would likely result in his arrest on the outstanding warrant. Of course, there are other ways he might trigger his own arrest; any traffic violation will probably have the same effect.

Unless your husband plans to spend the rest of his life wondering whether he is about to be arrested, he needs a New York criminal attorney to help him.