SCOTUS considers asset forfeiture
Where Magna Carta and Black Lives Matter converge
WHEN TYSON TIMBS received a life-insurance payout of $73,000 following his father’s death in 2012, he made a series of ill-advised decisions. First he blew $42,000 on a Land Rover. Then he started dealing heroin and made a pair of two-ounce sales totalling $385 to undercover police. Mr Timbs was charged and the authorities soon seized his car, a common practice whereby police “forfeit” items used in the commission of a crime. But the federal constitution says that “excessive fines” may not be “imposed”, and the SUV was worth more than four times the maximum fine ($10,000) that Indiana levies for felonies of this sort.
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Fine tuning”
From the December 1st 2018 edition
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