[inceptivecss]

Something important that might be in play is the company insurance policies. If the insurance company comes back and says, "No, we won't cover any activities that this felon does, you're taking on that risk yourself", the employer isn't going to hire you.

Typically this comes up where you're hiring someone for a similar (or the same) sort of work that they got in trouble for.

The same thing will happen if you lie on your employment application; the instant that the employer finds out you lied, they have to fire you or their insurance will stop covering anything you do.

It's possible that insurance is at play, or that their HR department is being overzealous about avoiding risk to the company via that method.