United States Ninth Circuit

In cross-appeals arising from the largest civil in rem forfeiture proceeding against firearms unlawfully possessed by a convicted felon in American history, concerning a forfeiture order against hundreds of collectable guns valued at $2.55 million, the district court ruling is: 1) affirmed, where claimant is not entitled to the protections of the so-called "innocent owner" defense, and the district court was therefore correct to hold that the entire collection was subject to forfeiture; 2) affirmed, as following a comprehensive revision to the forfeiture statutes in 2000, forfeitures of instrumentalities of crimes are subject to excessiveness analysis under the Eighth Amendment's Excessive Fines Clause; but 3) reversed, where excessiveness review must consider the individualized culpability of the property's owner and, when analyzing the offending conduct, it must focus only on the conduct that actually gave rise to the forfeiture of the property at issue, not other criminal conduct by the same person.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/11/2012
• Published 06/11/2012

Judges

• Bea

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel