Not that I'm defending this practice by any means, but if they didn't seize the vehicles or cash up front, what are the odds that after the trial they will get them?
Just to throw this idea out there - Let the cops and prosecutors keep doing what they are doing now, but if the person is found not guilty the county will have to pay them back double the cash value of what was seized PLUS 10% interest per month.
Put some skin for the locals in the game and see how fast the practice cleans itself up. Only a open and shut case would then be seized, and not like now as a revenue base.
blind squirrel,broken clock etc etc
this is an absolutely horrible law and needed to go away long ago
Change that from “found not guilty” to “not found guilty” and you’d be onto something. A lot of these cases never even go to a criminal trial; the asses seizure is the whole story. So you can’t let the tie (no trial, no verdict) go to the bad guys, make them actually get a conviction (with a separate finding with it’s own rules of evidence that the seized goods/money were related in some significant way to the crime, and then they can keep them). Otherwise, not just interest as you stated, but a PENALTY, so they’re actually out of pocket so there’s a disincentive. If the goods were money, they might have been earning interest, so making them pay interest might not put them out of pocket.
[ Just to throw this idea out there - Let the cops and prosecutors keep doing what they are doing now, but if the person is found not guilty the county will have to pay them back double the cash value of what was seized PLUS 10% interest per month.
Put some skin for the locals in the game and see how fast the practice cleans itself up. Only a open and shut case would then be seized, and not like now as a revenue base. ]
THERE IT IS! A SOLUTION!
The problem with your proposal is if the feds take everything you got then you don’t have the money to hire a decent attorney. And believe me, they take money for that exact reason.