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New
Jersey
Supreme
Court
Finds
Right
to
Jury
Trial
in
Forfeiture
Cases
9/11/98
New Jersey's highest court
last week affirmed a lower court decision giving people whose property
had been forfeited by authorities the right to a jury trial in their quest
to get it back. The ruling affects more than 2,500 New Jersey residents
whose cases are either pending or on appeal, as well as all future cases.
Last year alone, New Jersey police seized $16.9 million in property.
That money is added to the budgets of local law enforcement agencies.
More than 80% of people who have their property seized nationwide are never
charged with any crime.
The underlying case involved
Lois McDermott, a 67 year-old woman whose 46 year-old son used her 1990
Honda in connection with a drug deal. Elizabeth Macron, McDermott's
attorney argues that not only did her client have nothing to do with the
crime, but that she never even gave her son permission to use the car.
John T. Paff of the organization Forfeiture Endangers American Rights (FEAR)
told the Newark Star-Ledger "I think (the decision) will go a long way
toward restoring some sanity."
You can visit FEAR on the
web at http://www.fear.org.
-- END --
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Issue #58, 9/11/98
A Note to Our Readers | US-Trained, Incorruptible Mexican Anti-Narcotics Squad Widely Corrupted | Alert: McCollum Drug Act Would Further Militarize Andean Drug War | Texas Paper Releases Scathing Pentagon Review of Esequiel Hernandez Shooting | Whitman, AIDS Council Still at Odds Over Needle Exchange | Fayetteville City Council Rejects Random Drug Testing | New Jersey Supreme Court Finds Right to Jury Trial in Forfeiture Cases | March To Stop the Drug War, Berkeley, CA 26-Sep | First-Ever Global Conference on How To Legalize Cannabis | Attention College Students! | NY Attorney General Candidates Admit Past Marijuana Use | Patient's Glaucoma Justified Medical Marijuana Use, Cultivation, Canadian Judge Rules | Editorial: Long, Hot Summer
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