Criminal history records ineligible for court-ordered expunction or court-ordered sealing

Plain-language summary

This statute is the gate. It lists the offenses that make a record ineligible for court-ordered expungement or sealing. Before you read the list, know how it defines a conviction: a finding of guilt at trial, or a guilty or no-contest plea — even when adjudication was withheld. The plea alone can close the door.

The list is long. It runs from violent offenses — murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault and battery, robbery, carjacking, home-invasion robbery, kidnapping — to offenses against children, the elderly, and disabled persons. It covers sexual offenses of every kind, stalking, human trafficking, arson, burglary of a dwelling, drug trafficking and manufacturing, communications fraud, and terrorism. It also covers any offense that requires registration as a sexual predator or offender.

The rule reaches both remedies. A conviction for a listed offense blocks the certificate of eligibility for expungement under section 943.0585 and for sealing under section 943.059 alike. It also reaches juvenile adjudications for the listed acts.

One boundary is worth stating plainly. The list disqualifies convictions, in the statute's broad sense of that word. A listed charge that was dropped or dismissed — never a plea, never a finding of guilt — does not by itself make your record ineligible. Whether the rest of your history qualifies is what the eligibility check and FDLE's certificate process determine.