HB 1296 (2022)

Limits the scope of property which is presumed to be subject to forfeiture under the Controlled Drug Act. According to the Department of Safety, the law as currently written puts the burden of proof of legitimacy of funds on the suspect. This bill would place the burden on the state.

The House rewrote the bill. According to Rep. John Burt, writing on behalf of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, "In 2016 this legislature made a major step toward changing the process of civil asset forfeiture. That step required a criminal conviction in most cases prior to the forfeiture case proceeding. ... Instead of two separate but related cases, this bill ties the seized asset to the criminal case. It provides that in the event the prosecution fails to convict, the asset is released. In the event of a conviction on a felony charge, the forfeiture of the asset is treated as a part of sentencing. This bill also limits the process of adopting seized assets to the federal government for civil asset forfeiture. It will require that seizures made under state law remain within our criminal asset forfeiture laws."