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I've argued all along that it is possible that Puckett did not know the pot was being grown on his land. I wouldn't call it "Puckett's operation" because I don't know that he had anything to do with it. The jury sure didn't seem to think there was enough evidence to prove he knew that pot was being grown on his land. You trudge on as if he was guilty of a crime. Personally, I need to see proof before I go convicting anyone. I've see plenty of cases where the circumstantial evidence looked bad for the defendant and then it turned out that the guy was clearly innocent.

We've beaten this horse to death. The more we get into it, the more apparent it becomes that we need more information about the case in order to have a fair and rational debate about it. And even if we did have more evidence, I'd say we’ve gone about as far as we are going to go with this one and we're getting to the point where nitpicking is more descriptive than debating for what is actually occurring on this thread.

You are correct in assuming that I do not like asset forfeiture laws. If it were up to me, we'd severely limit the instances under which forfeitures would be appropriate. And aside from just trying to make the forfeiture system fair, we'd make for strict oversight as to what happens with the forfeiture proceeds. The lion's share of the money would not go to the arresting law enforcement agencies and the local prosecutors like it does now. It would be earmarked for other purposes like programs designed to help people get off drugs or leave them alone in the first place. The other way turns our police into predators with screwy priorities and it leads to corruption and disparate treatment for different defendants.

Thanks for the debate. I have a feeling that deep down inside you have the many of the same complaints about our laws that I have. You're just not ready to stop defending failed policies yet. Give it time, sooner or later if you maintain an interest in these issues you'll start adding up all of the things that are really wrong with our system and you'll start pushing for reform too.

A man cannot be reasoned out of a position he was not reasoned into.

Bump your optimism, however.

Just a little more information on the forfeiture itself.