Georgia Public Policy Foundation President and CEO Kelly McCutchen wrote a letter to the editor that was published in the June 23, 2013 issue of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in response to an editorial on civil asset forfeiture in Georgia:
Innocent parties lose under current laws
“Court of public opinion” (Opinion, June 16) highlights the questionable spending of forfeiture funds but ignores the larger issue: Innocent property owners are losing their property.
Your property can be seized in Georgia even if you have not been convicted or even accused of a crime. Even worse, the burden of proof is on y0u — not on the state — to prove your innocence and you must sue to retrieve your property. Questionable spending is worth of concern, but the greater flaws in our civil asset forfeiture law are negatively impacting peoples’ lives.
Kelly McCutchen,
President
Georgia Public Policy Foundation
