Discuss the history of asset forfeiture from English law to the present. Be sure to include the Confiscation Act of 1862, the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, and the RICO statute

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: Asset forfeiture refers to the seizure by the government of cash, cars, homes, and other property that the government claims are the result of criminal activity. Authorization for this strategy in law enforcement was created as part of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970.

Forfeitures have existed for thousands of years and are traceable to biblical and pre-Judeo-Christian times. Early English law recognized a kind of forfeiture known as "deodand," which required forfeiture of the instrument of a person's death. The principle was based on the legal fiction that the instrument causing death was deemed "guilty property" capable of doing further harm.

The Confiscation Act of 1862, authorized the use of in rem civil procedures against southern rebels and their sympathizers who possessed property in the North. The law stated that the properties seized were to be used for supporting the Union cause in waging its war. The federal government at the time was responding to a Confederate law that confiscated the southern properties belonging to supporters of the Union.

It was not until the late twentieth century that civil forfeiture was "rediscovered" to address a pressing social concern: the war on drugs. The justification for extending forfeiture into the realm of illicit drug control was one of deterrence. Legislators believed that imprisonment of drug traffickers often was treated by criminal organizations as a mere cost of business, and therefore, forfeiture could be used to attempt to reduce their profits.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) statute pertained to the prevention of criminal infiltration of legitimate businesses. It was a response to the practice of funneling ("laundering") profits from criminal activity, whether drug-related or not, into financial dealings of an unrelated commercial enterprise.

Forfeiture reduces the financial incentive to reap the often enormous profits that are involved in drug trafficking and disrupts a drug-trafficking organization by seizing any vehicles, boats, planes, or property used to transport or produce illicit drugs. The DEA made more than 18,000 domestic seizures of nondrug property, valued at approximately $1.8 million in 2009 as a result of drug investigations. Currently, the U.S. Marshalls Service is assigned to the management and care of more than $1.7 billion worth of property seized through the federal asset forfeiture program.

There are two types of forfeitures: criminal (in personam) forfeitures and civil (in rem) forfeitures. The distinction between criminal and civil forfeitures is based upon whether the penalty pertains to a person or a thing. Criminal forfeitures are primarily against a specific
person and result after a conviction for a crime to which the forfeited property is related. This can occur upon showing during the course of sentencing or plea bargaining that the property is contraband (illegally obtained through the profit of a crime). Such criminal forfeitures are subject to all the constitutional and statutory procedural safeguards available under criminal law,
and the forfeiture case and the criminal case are both tried together.

Civil forfeitures, on the other hand, are in rem actions based upon the unlawful use of property, irrespective of its owner's culpability. Traditionally, civil forfeiture has
operated on the premise that the property itself is the guilty party, and the fact that the forfeiture of the property affects an individual's property rights is not considered. With civil forfeiture, the offender does not need to be convicted or even charged with a crime because it is contended that the property "itself" is guilty. The property owner's guilt or innocence is therefore irrelevant, and civil forfeiture proceedings can be pursued independently or in lieu of a criminal trial.