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57 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
57 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
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The Law: Guilt Doesn't Matter
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Rooted in English common law, forfeiture has surfaced just twice in the
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United States since colonial times. // In 1862, Congress permitted the
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president to seize estates of Confederate soldiers. Then, in 1970, it
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resurrected forfeiture for the civil war on drugs with the passage of
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racketeering laws that targeted the assets of criminals. // In 1984
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however, the nature of the law was radically changed to allow government
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to take possession without first charging, let alone convicting the
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owner. That was done in an effort to make it easier to strike at the
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heart of the major drug dealers. Cops knew that drug dealers consider
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prison time an inevitable cost of doing business. It rarely deters them.
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Profits and playthings, though, are their passions. Losing them hurts.
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us in the law. the proceeds would flow back to law
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enforcement to finance more investigations. It was to be the ultimate
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poetic justice, with criminals financing their own undoing.
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But eliminating the necessity of charging or proving a crime has moved
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most of the action to civil court, where the government accuses the item
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-- not the owner -- of being tainted by a crime. // This oddity has
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court dockets looking like purchase orders: United States of America vs.
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9.6 acres of land and lake; U.S. vs. 667 bottles of wine. But it's more
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than just a labeling change. Because money and property are at stake
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instead of life and liberty, the constitutional safeguards in criminal
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proceedings do not apply. // The result is that ``jury trials can be
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refused; illegal searches condoned; rules of evidence ignored,'' says
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Louisville, Ky. defense lawyer Donald Heavrin. The ``frenzied quest for
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cash,'' he says, is ``destroying the judicial system.''
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Every crime package passed since 1984 has expanded the uses of
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forfeiture, and now there are more than 100 statutes in place at the
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state and federal level. Not just for drug cases anymore, forfeiture
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covers the likes of money laundering, fraud, gambling, importing tainted
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meats and carrying intoxicants onto Indian land.
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The White House, Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration
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say they've made the most of the expanded law in getting the big-time
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criminals, and they boast of seizing mansions, planes and millions in
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cash. But the Pittsburgh Press in just 10 months was able to document
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510 current cases that involved innocent people -- or those possessing a
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very small amount of drugs -- who lost their possessions. // And DEA's
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own database contradicts the official line. It showed that big-ticket
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items -- valued at more than $50,000 -- were only 17 percent of the
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total 25,297 items seized by DEA during the 18 months that ended last
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December.
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``If you want to use that 'war on drugs' analogy, the forfeiture is like
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giving the troops permission to loot,'' says Thomas Lorenzi,
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president-elect of the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense
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Lawyers. // The near-obsession with forfeiture continues without any
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proof that it curbs drug crime -- its original target. // ``The reality
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is, it's very difficult to tell what the impact of drug seizure is,''
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says Stanley Morris, deputy director of the federal drug czar's office.
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--- Renegade v6-27 Beta
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* Origin: Shark's Mouth 313-658-1110 750 MEGS Dual Amiga/IBM (23:313/108)
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