A criminal record can be a bar to certain types of employment, licensing, holding public office, and even the right to vote. Most states allow for a process called expungement that will remove certain arrests or criminal convictions from the offender’s record.

Depending upon the laws of the state in which you live and the nature of the crime, you may be able to get an arrest or conviction sealed or erased from your legal record. After the expungement process is complete, you will not need to disclose the conviction on a job or school application, and in most instances no record of the arrest or conviction will show up during a public records inspection or background check commonly done by potential employers, landlords, and educational institutions.

In Mississippi, all official public records all records relating to arrest, indictment, trial, sentence, and disposition of case may be expunged. Certain juvenile medical or mental health examinations records are not eligible for expungement. § M.C. 43-21-265. No expunction of any implied consent violation is allowed. M.C. § 9-23-23. Records of sex offenses required to be disseminated may not be expunged. M.C. § 45-33-55  

Those eligible to request an expungement  of a criminal conviction in Mississippi include:

• A juvenile arrested and released and whose case was dismissed or the charges were dropped or there was no disposition of such case. No pending charges must exist.


•  A person convicted of a misdemeanor, excluding a conviction for a traffic violation and who is a first offender.


• A person arrested and released and the case was dismissed or the charges were dropped or there was no disposition of the case, unless such person has been charged with an offense pertaining to the sale, barter, transfer, manufacture, distribution or dispensing of a controlled substance, or the possession with intent to sell, barter, transfer, manufacture, distribute or dispense a controlled substance, except when the controlled substance involved is one ounce or less of marijuana; or an offense pertaining to the possession of one kilogram or more of marijuana .


• A person who served a sentence or period of probation and parole, pled guilty within six months prior to March 31, 1983.


• A person who is arrested, issued a citation, or held for any misdemeanor and not formally charged or prosecuted with an offense within twelve months of arrest, or receives a dismissal of the charge.


• A person who was dismissed and the proceedings against them discharged or convicted for certain drug offenses under (c) or (d) of M.C. § 41-29-139 and had not reached their twenty-sixth birthday at the time of the offense, or a person who had satisfactorily served his sentence or period of probation and parole, had not turned 26 at the time of the offense.
  A person convicted of a misdemeanor drug offense of marijuana possession which is a first or second conviction will have records of conviction expunged after two years.
  A defendant or participant who was sentenced at the time of entry of plea of guilty and completed the drug court order and requirements of probation or suspension of sentence.

The USLegal website  gives a full overview of expungement law in the state of Mississippi.