Maybe this ruling/agreement can be taken to other places. Philadelphia Will Dismantle Its Asset Forfeiture Program and Pay $3 Million to Victims.
Four years after Philadelphia police seized the home of Markela and Chris Sourovelis for a minor drug crime committed by their son, the city has agreed to almost completely dismantle its controversial civil asset forfeiture program and pay $3 million to its victims.
The Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm, announced today that the city had agreed to a settlement in a federal civil rights class-action lawsuit challenging its forfeiture program.
The Constitution (that document that no one reads anymore) maintains that government can’t impose excessive fines, and it also can’t take private property without just compensation. The way asset forfeiture works in this country violates both of those restrictions.
A 2015 report by the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union found that almost a third of cash forfeiture cases in Philadelphia involved money owned by people who had not been found guilty of a crime.
The “court” in which you had to appear to contest this was run by prosecutors – no judges, and no “court-appointed attorneys.” And it sounds like very little justice. (Hat tip to Irons in the Fire.)