State v. Gomes, 253 N.J. 6 (2023)

CJ Griffin argued before the New Jersey Supreme Court on behalf of amicus curiae ACDL-NJ that a person who had been granted a conditional dismissal for a marijuana offense was still eligible for participation in the Pre-Trial Intervention ("PTI") program because the marijuana offense had been automatically expunged by the enactment of the Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement, Assistance and Marketplace Modernization Act ("CREAMMA"). ACDL-NJ argued that CREAMMA was enacted, in part, to remedy the multitude of unjust consequences that stemmed from low-level marijuana convictions. To that end, CREAMMA intended to put individuals who were convicted of low-level marijuana offenses in the same position as they would have been in had the offense never been criminalized. For the defendant, that meant he should be treated as though he had not already used his one-time chance to participate in a diversionary program. The Court agreed, harmonizing CREAMMA and the PTI statute means that prior expunged marijuana diversions or convictions do not preclude a person's admission into PTI. Dillon McGuire co-authored the brief.

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