Opinion
Criminal Action No. 98-cr-00019-WYD.
July 27, 2006
ORDER
THIS MATTER is before the Court on a letter from Defendant Kathryn Fox [# 44, filed June 20, 2006], which is being treated as a Motion to Seal or Expunge Defendant's Record. On July 13, 2006, the Government filed its Response to Defendant's Request Expungement of Conviction, stating that the Court is without power to expunge Defendant's conviction. Defendant filed a letter responding to the Government's Response on July 21, 2006.
By way of background, I note that on March 13, 1998, Defendant entered a plea of guilty to a felony violation of 18 U.S.C. § 666 and was later sentenced to a term of 12 months and one day of imprisonment. Defendant now requests that her record be sealed or expunged based on the fact that her status as a convicted felon had made it difficult for her to obtain employment, the fact she was suffering emotional hardship, and her belief that "the punishment for felony conviction never ends." Although "a federal court may, in extreme cases, expunge a federal conviction that has, in some manner, been invalidated" (United States v. Pinto, 1 F.3d 1069, 1070 (10th Cir. 1993)), a defendant's contention that she "has been punished enough [is] simply insufficient as a matter of law" ( id.) to allow the exercise of a court's equitable power to expunge. Defendant Fox does not argue that her conviction was somehow invalid, and I find that I am without authority to seal or expunge Defendant's record.
Accordingly, Defendant's Motion to Seal or Expunge is DENIED.