To encourage law enforcement agencies to use this powerful new tool, Congress empowered federal agencies to retain the proceeds of successful forfeitures, and authorized them to share the funds with state and local agencies that participate in forfeiture cases through what is known as the "Equitable sharing" program.
These are vast sums of money-in fact, some law enforcement agencies are dependent on forfeiture revenues to finance their operations-yet none of this money goes through the normal appropriations process.
Forfeiture law suffers from a lack of adequate due process protections.
Most are resolved through the tortuous and opaque "Administrative forfeiture" process in which the agency that seized the property-and stands to gain financially from keeping it-plays judge, prosecutor, and jury all in one.
The bill would raise the standard of proof in federal forfeiture cases to "Clear and convincing evidence," a much higher bar than the current "Preponderance of the evidence" standard.
Crucially, the FAIR Act would eliminate the forfeiture financial incentive by abolishing the equitable sharing program, and mandating that all federal forfeiture proceeds be returned to the Treasury's General Fund to be appropriated by Congress.
In polls, substantial majorities of Americans favor reining in civil forfeiture, and 76 percent of the public would actually be more likely to vote for candidates who embrace reform.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/03/27/this-bill-would-close-a-loophole-that-robs-americans-of-due-process/
These are vast sums of money-in fact, some law enforcement agencies are dependent on forfeiture revenues to finance their operations-yet none of this money goes through the normal appropriations process.
Forfeiture law suffers from a lack of adequate due process protections.
Most are resolved through the tortuous and opaque "Administrative forfeiture" process in which the agency that seized the property-and stands to gain financially from keeping it-plays judge, prosecutor, and jury all in one.
The bill would raise the standard of proof in federal forfeiture cases to "Clear and convincing evidence," a much higher bar than the current "Preponderance of the evidence" standard.
Crucially, the FAIR Act would eliminate the forfeiture financial incentive by abolishing the equitable sharing program, and mandating that all federal forfeiture proceeds be returned to the Treasury's General Fund to be appropriated by Congress.
In polls, substantial majorities of Americans favor reining in civil forfeiture, and 76 percent of the public would actually be more likely to vote for candidates who embrace reform.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/03/27/this-bill-would-close-a-loophole-that-robs-americans-of-due-process/
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