But quite a few are. We used to far more concerned with protecting the innocent rather than inflicting extra-legal punishment on suspected law breakers.
Modern forfeiture laws are only about three decades old. All supposed to be about the "war on some drugs".
Billions have been stolen from people without ever being convicted of a crime.
I have no first hand experience, but from what I understand the following scenario is common.
Cop stops a car on the interstate. Just one Hispanic man is driving from somewhere out of state to somewhere else. He won’t say.
There is probable cause and a dog alerts to drugs. The car is impounded and there is a few kilos of whatever and $25,000 in cash. Pedro isn’t talking.
This is a routine case and the locals know they can’t hold him or if they try - he will bail out. They know that Pedro and his suppliers know the loss of a few kilos and 25K in cash is just a small part of doing business. They know some judge will just sentence Pedro to time served if he is tried and found guilty. They know they can’t deport him. If they did, He’d be back in the US within a week. With more drugs to smuggle.
They know it is more effective to keep the cash and the car and destroy the drugs and let Pedro go to try again another day.
Besides - this keeps the crime stats low. And there are no forfeiture issues. The cash and car are labeled as abandoned and unclaimed.
Our criminal justice system is a joke.