State cleared criminal (7)
I believe the answer is:
declare
'state' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'cleared criminal' is the wordplay.
'criminal' indicates anagramming the letters.
'cleared' anagrammed gives 'DECLARE'.
(Other definitions for declare that I've seen before include "Announce formally" , "Proclaim" , "Make clearly known" , "Aver, state" , "State emphatically" .)