mirror of
https://github.com/nhammer514/textfiles-politics.git
synced 2024-12-25 07:19:31 -05:00
57 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
57 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
The Law: Guilt Doesn't Matter
|
||
|
||
Rooted in English common law, forfeiture has surfaced just twice in the
|
||
United States since colonial times. // In 1862, Congress permitted the
|
||
president to seize estates of Confederate soldiers. Then, in 1970, it
|
||
resurrected forfeiture for the civil war on drugs with the passage of
|
||
racketeering laws that targeted the assets of criminals. // In 1984
|
||
however, the nature of the law was radically changed to allow government
|
||
to take possession without first charging, let alone convicting the
|
||
owner. That was done in an effort to make it easier to strike at the
|
||
heart of the major drug dealers. Cops knew that drug dealers consider
|
||
prison time an inevitable cost of doing business. It rarely deters them.
|
||
Profits and playthings, though, are their passions. Losing them hurts.
|
||
us in the law. the proceeds would flow back to law
|
||
enforcement to finance more investigations. It was to be the ultimate
|
||
poetic justice, with criminals financing their own undoing.
|
||
|
||
But eliminating the necessity of charging or proving a crime has moved
|
||
most of the action to civil court, where the government accuses the item
|
||
-- not the owner -- of being tainted by a crime. // This oddity has
|
||
court dockets looking like purchase orders: United States of America vs.
|
||
9.6 acres of land and lake; U.S. vs. 667 bottles of wine. But it's more
|
||
than just a labeling change. Because money and property are at stake
|
||
instead of life and liberty, the constitutional safeguards in criminal
|
||
proceedings do not apply. // The result is that ``jury trials can be
|
||
refused; illegal searches condoned; rules of evidence ignored,'' says
|
||
Louisville, Ky. defense lawyer Donald Heavrin. The ``frenzied quest for
|
||
cash,'' he says, is ``destroying the judicial system.''
|
||
|
||
Every crime package passed since 1984 has expanded the uses of
|
||
forfeiture, and now there are more than 100 statutes in place at the
|
||
state and federal level. Not just for drug cases anymore, forfeiture
|
||
covers the likes of money laundering, fraud, gambling, importing tainted
|
||
meats and carrying intoxicants onto Indian land.
|
||
|
||
The White House, Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration
|
||
say they've made the most of the expanded law in getting the big-time
|
||
criminals, and they boast of seizing mansions, planes and millions in
|
||
cash. But the Pittsburgh Press in just 10 months was able to document
|
||
510 current cases that involved innocent people -- or those possessing a
|
||
very small amount of drugs -- who lost their possessions. // And DEA's
|
||
own database contradicts the official line. It showed that big-ticket
|
||
items -- valued at more than $50,000 -- were only 17 percent of the
|
||
total 25,297 items seized by DEA during the 18 months that ended last
|
||
December.
|
||
|
||
``If you want to use that 'war on drugs' analogy, the forfeiture is like
|
||
giving the troops permission to loot,'' says Thomas Lorenzi,
|
||
president-elect of the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense
|
||
Lawyers. // The near-obsession with forfeiture continues without any
|
||
proof that it curbs drug crime -- its original target. // ``The reality
|
||
is, it's very difficult to tell what the impact of drug seizure is,''
|
||
says Stanley Morris, deputy director of the federal drug czar's office.
|
||
|
||
--- Renegade v6-27 Beta
|
||
* Origin: Shark's Mouth 313-658-1110 750 MEGS Dual Amiga/IBM (23:313/108)
|
||
|