The Kansas Legislature unanimously handed a invoice overhauling the foundations for when police can seize property below a apply generally known as civil asset forfeiture.
The Kansas Home and Senate voted 120-0 and 35-0, respectively, to ship S.B. 458 to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s desk earlier this month. Amongst its provisions, the laws would make offenses associated to possession or private use of medicine ineligible for civil asset forfeiture, require regulation enforcement companies to inform county prosecutors of a request for forfeiture inside 14 days, and restrict when native police can let federal regulation enforcement “undertake” their forfeiture instances.
It could additionally require judges to think about whether or not a seizure is unconstitutionally extreme, put the burden of proof on prosecutors to point out that the seizure was proportional to the offense, and permit some property house owners to recoup authorized prices after they efficiently problem a seizure.
A broad spectrum of civil liberties teams and suppose tanks supported the invoice, arguing that Kansas’ civil asset forfeiture course of was unjustly tilted within the authorities’s favor and towards property house owners. Greater than 30 states have reformed their asset forfeiture legal guidelines over the previous decade due to complaints like these, however Kansas was not amongst them.
Beneath typical civil forfeiture legal guidelines, police can seize property when it is suspected of being linked to prison exercise, akin to drug trafficking, even when the proprietor is rarely charged with against the law. Legislation enforcement teams say civil forfeiture is a crucial device for disrupting organized crime by concentrating on its illicit proceeds.
Nevertheless, Sam MacRoberts, litigation director of the Kansas Justice Institute, says the reforms “had been lengthy overdue and desperately wanted.”
“Forfeiture is abusive and unjust,” MacRoberts says. “Elevating the burden of proof, limiting federal adoptions, and requiring the federal government to pay affordable legal professional charges to profitable property house owners—amongst different reforms—is a good begin. We’re hopeful it will minimize down on a number of the extra abusive forfeiture instances.”
A type of instances was the ordeal of Dewonna Goodridge, a 57-year-old Junction Metropolis resident whose 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe was seized by Geary County sheriff’s deputies final yr. The deputies had pulled over her son for a number of alleged visitors infractions, then seized the truck after a deputy claimed to seek out “shake” —small marijuana crumbs—within the heart console, which was by no means collected for proof. County prosecutors moved to grab Goodridge’s truck, claiming it “characterize[ed] the proceeds of unlawful drug transactions, or was used, or meant for use, to facilitate drug transactions.”
It took eight months and illustration from the Kansas Justice Institute earlier than Goodridge bought her truck again. (That is commonplace. A 2022 Individuals for Prosperity report on Kansas’ forfeiture legal guidelines discovered that individuals who had been capable of recuperate their seized property took a mean of 419 days to get it again.)
Kansas regulation enforcement teams opposed a number of components of the invoice, and to acquire a bipartisan compromise legislators dropped a provision that will have added the flexibility to demand a jury trial in asset forfeiture instances.
Many different state supreme courts have dominated that property house owners have a due course of proper to a jury trial in forfeiture instances. Final yr, the Indiana Supreme Courtroom ruled that the seizure of property via civil forfeiture is “an basically authorized motion that triggers the fitting” to a jury trial.
The New Jersey Supreme Courtroom additionally affirmed the fitting to jury trials in drug forfeiture instances in State v. One 1990 Honda Accord, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Courtroom adopted swimsuit in Commonwealth v. One 1984 Z-28 Camaro Coupe. The South Dakota Supreme Courtroom cited each instances in State v. One 1969 Blue Pontiac Firebird and $4,403.83 in American Currency.
The dearth of jury trial protections was a disappointment for supporters of the Kansas laws, however MacRoberts says they are going to maintain working for extra reforms.
“The federal government ought to need to show their case to a jury,” he says. “We’ll maintain urgent forward to verify Kansans have their instances heard by their friends. There’s extra work to be completed, however it’s positively a step in the fitting path.”
