Trump commuted two federal marijuana sentences on September 3. The USVI's own expungement report is 1,022 days past its deadline

As of September 5, 2026. President Trump commuted the federal marijuana sentences of Jerry Haymon IV and Kevin Harden on Thursday, September 3. Marijuana Moment reported the grants on September 4. Haymon was serving a 10-year mandatory minimum for a marijuana distribution conspiracy and had spent the past year in home confinement. Harden was serving 30 years on a distribution conspiracy and has had multiple open-heart surgeries, a seizure disorder, and blood-clotting complications while incarcerated. Both applications carried a letter from Mike Tyson urging the president to extend the benefit of rescheduling to people still serving marijuana sentences.

Neither grant touches a record in the Virgin Islands. Clemency runs on federal convictions. The territory’s cannabis record-clearing runs on its own statute and its own clock.

What clemency reaches and what it does not

Presidential clemency reaches federal sentences. A conviction entered in Virgin Islands Superior Court is territorial, and the president cannot commute or expunge it.

The division cuts the other way as well. The Virgin Islands Cannabis Use Act directs the Superior Court to expunge qualifying cannabis convictions entered by that court. A conviction in the District Court of the Virgin Islands is federal, and the Act does not reach it, as the USVI cannabis expungement guide explains.

The commutations landed while the federal rescheduling proceeding is still with the administrative law judge, who is preparing a recommendation for the DEA Administrator. That proceeding concerns how marijuana is scheduled, not territorial criminal records. The April order and what it left unresolved for the territory are covered in the April rescheduling piece.

The report that sets the clock

Governor Albert Bryan Jr. signed the Cannabis Use Act on January 18, 2023. The Act gives the Office of Cannabis Regulation a deadline: an Auto-Expungement report “no later than 10 months from the date of enactment of this act.” That date was November 18, 2023. As of September 5, 2026, it is 1,022 days past.

The report is the trigger for the rest of the expungement process. It sorts cannabis convictions into three classifications: crimes that must be expunged, crimes that may be expunged, and crimes that cannot be expunged under any circumstances. The Act directs the Superior Court to issue its orders “upon issuance” of that report. No report, no orders.

Vibe High searched the OCR site on September 5 and could not locate a published Auto-Expungement report. The agency’s own expungement page does not reference one.

What OCR publishes instead

OCR’s expungement page describes a different route. It cites Act 8679, the companion expungement law signed the same day as the Cannabis Use Act, and applies to convictions for simple possession of two ounces or less.

The instructions on that page point the reader toward self-petition: complete the form, submit the petition with supporting documents to the Superior Court, or retain an attorney or a firm to assist. The page lists what the paperwork costs:

• Certified VIPD background check: $12
• Certified VIPD arrest reports: $10 each
• Certified court documents: $10 each
• Copies of charging documents: $3 each
• Court filing fee: $75
• Process server: $100

The Cannabis Use Act describes a process with no petition and no filing fee, run off an OCR eligibility list and carried out by court order. The process OCR currently publishes instructions for asks the individual to file and to pay. Both laws are on the books. Only one has step-by-step instructions and a fee schedule attached to it.

The list

At the Cannabis Advisory Board meeting on August 20, a list of people eligible to have cannabis convictions expunged was reported to be in its final stages, with the list to go to the board for approval and then to legislators and the Supreme Court in the weeks following. That account comes from the St. Thomas Source report of the meeting.

The board did not have a quorum that day and could not conduct official business. No vote on the list was taken.

What to watch

• The board’s next meeting, proposed for September 24 at 2 p.m. per the St. Thomas Source report of the August 20 session. If it seats a quorum, the eligibility list is the item to look for on the agenda.
• Whether OCR publishes the Auto-Expungement report itself rather than a list alone. The Act ties the court’s orders to issuance of the report, so the document is the step that matters.
• Whether OCR’s expungement page is updated to describe the automatic process alongside the self-petition route.