Georgia Lawmaker Introduces Bill To Require Conviction for Asset Forfeiture

Georgia passed some asset forfeiture reforms in 2015. Can it join 14 other states that require a conviction before police can keep people’s stuff?

After years of work and compromise, Georgia passed modest asset forfeiture reforms in 2015 that strengthened protections for property owners and required law enforcement to release standardized annual reports on their asset forfeiture activity.

Republican state representative Scot Turner believe those reforms didn’t go far enough. Turner introduced a bill, H.B. 505, in February that would require law enforcement in Georgia to obtain a criminal conviction for the state to keep seized assets.

If Turner’s bill becomes law the state would join 14 others requiring a criminal conviction in some or all asset forfeiture cases. Nebraska, New Mexico, and North Carolina have abolished civil asset forfeiture altogether.


Under civil asset forfeiture laws in other states, police can seize property they believe is connected to criminal activity, even if the owners are not charged with a crime.
Law enforcement groups say asset forfeiture is a vital tool to disrupt drug trafficking and other organized crime by targeting their illicit gains. Police seize millions of dollars and tons of narcotics during highway traffic stops every year.

However, civil liberties groups from across the political spectrum say innocent property owners are victims of lax safeguards, poor transparency, and the perverse profit incentives of asset forfeiture without ever being charged, much less convicted, of a crime.

http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/12/georgia-lawmaker-introduces-bill-to-requ