As the Wall St. Journal says, the feds' ramped up use of forfeitures is snaring the property of the innocent as well as the guilty.

It's an issue both the right and the left agree on:

The expansion of forfeiture powers is part of a broader growth in recent decades of the federal justice system that has seen hundreds of new criminal laws passed. Some critics have dubbed the pattern as the overcriminalization of American life. The forfeiture system has opponents across the political spectrum, including representatives of groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union on the left and the Heritage Foundation on the right. They argue it represents a widening threat to innocent people.

As David Smith, author of the leading text book on forfeiture law, says:

"We are paying assistant U.S. attorneys to carry out the theft of property from often the most defenseless citizens," given that people sometimes have limited resources to fight a seizure after their assets are taken, says David Smith, a former Justice Department forfeiture official and now a forfeiture lawyer in Alexandria, Va.

This needs a lot more attention. The money does not just go to crime victims. In drug cases, for example, there are no financial victims. Very rarely do you see a restitution order in a drug case. The Government just gets to keep the funds -- or share them with local law enforcement. It's such a racket.

On Saturday, I wrote about the Obama Administration's new Southwest Border Drug Control Policy. Here is the 2011 National Drug Control Policy. The Administration wants us to believe it is focused on prevention and treatment. And Sections 1-4 of the Action List do address treatment and prevention. The devil is in the details.

Obama has no intention of reducing the crack/powder disparity further than the 18:1 ratio passed by Congress. Or reducing any other mandatory minimums for drug crimes. Or reducing any current federal drug penalties. Under the action section, "4.2.D. Foster Equitable Drug Sentencing", in red letters, is the word "Complete." [More...]

Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano and Obama Drug Czar R. Gil Kerlikowske this week released the Administration's 2011 Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy. (Full report here.)

The increased use of privacy-invasive technology predominates throughout. As does the sharing of information with Mexico (hardly a wise idea given the corruption that continues to exist in their police and military).No wonder they call it the war on drugs, it reads like a military/CIA manifesto: [More...]

There are lots of newspapers reporting that today the DEA denied a petition to reclassify Marijuana from a Schedule I controlled substance (like Heroin)to a lesser schedule. I wish they had taken the time (or figured out how) to access the actual ruling. Nor did the DEA or DOJ put out a news release that I could find.

Here it is, published in today's Federal Register. (Text version here, a faster loading pdf version here.) On the finding that marijuana has no accepted medical use: [More...]

A handy little primer, followed by some thoughts on the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt and the presumption of innocence.

A Verdict of Not Guilty Includes:

• Based upon the evidence presented, we the Jury find that the defendant is absolutely 100% innocent.

• Based upon the evidence presented, we the Jury, cannot be absolutely sure that the defendant is innocent.

• Based upon the evidence presented, we the Jury are confident that the defendant is innocent.

• Based upon the evidence presented, we the Jury believe that the defendant is probably innocent. [More...]

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has released its annual report on the use of federal and state wiretaps and electronic surveillance. It's available here.

In 2010, wiretaps were up 34% from 2009. There were 1,207 federal wiretaps and 1,287 state wiretaps. On average, each wiretap intercepted the communications of 118 people. The average number of incriminating calls intercepted was 26%.

A whopping 84% of the wiretaps were for drug investigations. The average cost of a federal wiretap was $63,000. [More...]

The Department of Justice issued a new memo (available here) to federal prosecutors yesterday further "clarifying" its 2009 Ogden Memorandum. The Odgen memorandum (available here) said federal resources should not be used to prosecute those in "clear and unambiguous" compliance with state medical marijuana laws.

Sorry, the new memo says, that's not what we meant. We only meant federal resources shouldn't be used to prosecute cancer patients and other seriously ill people who used marijuana in compliance with state law. We never meant to provide a shield for those who supply medical marijuana to those in full compliance with state law.[More...]

Great news from the U.S. Sentencing Commission today for the 12,000 plus federal inmates serving draconian prison sentences for crack cocaine. The Commission voted unanimously to make the new crack cocaine penalty reduction retroactive.

The United States Sentencing Commission voted unanimously today to give retroactive effect to its proposed permanent amendment to the federal sentencing guidelines that implements the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010. Retroactivity of the amendment will become effective on November 1, 2011― the same day that the proposed permanent amendment would take effect― unless Congress acts to disapprove the amendment.

The latest in the ongoing strife between the DEA and Pitkin County Sheriff's. The DEA thinks they are the good guys. The majority of the community, as evident by its overwhelming rejection of pro-drug war Sheriff candidates since 1976 say otherwise. [More...]

Today is the 40th anniversary of America's War on Drugs. On June 17, 1971, then-President Richard Milhouse Nixon officially declared drug abuse as the nation's Public Enemy Number One. Here's his address to the country on June 17, 1971.

America's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive.

I have asked the Congress to provide the legislative authority and the funds to fuel this kind of an offensive. This will be a worldwide offensive dealing with the problems of sources of supply, as well as Americans who may be stationed abroad, wherever they are in the world. It will be government wide, pulling together the nine different fragmented areas within the government in which this problem is now being handled, and it will be nationwide in terms of a new educational program that we trust will result from the discussions that we have had.

What an utter failure, just like Nixon.

Anyone here remember what they were doing in June, 1971? This is an open thread, all topics welcome

Yesterday I mentioned Radley Balko's new article at Reason on the number of wrongfully convicted Americans doing time.

Today I learned the entire July issue of Reason is devoted to Criminal Injustice and our country's over-reliance on prison and the failure of the war on drugs.

There's Prison Math, that asks what are the costs and benefits of leading the world in locking up human beings? Reason Editor Matt Welch writes The Ends Didn’t Justify the Means on our complicity in the devastating war on crime. Bruce Western writes Locked Up, Locked Out on the social costs of incarceration.

There's also an article on John Edwards, The Persecution of John Edwards, positing that "The only thing worse than Edwards’ ugly behavior is the government’s effort to put him in jail for it." [More...]

U.S. District Magistrate Judge Hugh Brenneman Jr. in Michigan has ordered the state to turn over medical marijuana records to the DEA for its use in a federal criminal investigation.

The DEA had issued administrative subpoenas to the Michigan Board of Community Health.

[H]e said that “while the Michigan Legislature declared its intent not to penalize the medical use of marijuana under state law, it had to acknowledge its action did not alter the existing federal prohibition against marijuana....The use of marijuana remains a federal felony.”

[More...]