At 1:00 p.m. on a Thursday in late May, the courtroom of Associate Judge Lakshmi Jha is about to come to order. The 49-year-old jurist, appointed to the bench less than two months earlier, is beginning her judicial career in expungement court. It is the place where citizens come to have their criminal convictions removed from the public record, and it will be up to Jha, a former Public Defender, to say yes or no.

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