Also known as: instrumentalities or fruits of a crime · instrumentality of crime · fruit of crime · forfeiture · proceeds of crime
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
Property used to commit a crime. Such property may be seized without a warrant from a public place when probable cause exists to believe it is forfeitable contraband.
Property used to commit a crime. Such property may be seized without a warrant from a public place when probable cause exists to believe it is forfeitable contraband.
A defendant arranged for a witness to be threatened so she would not testify about the defendant's use of a truck in a robbery. Because the defendant acted with intent to prevent testimony, the witness's prior statements were admissible under the forfeiture-by-wrongdoing doctrine.
Officers obtained a warrant to tap a phone inside a vehicle they had probable cause to believe was stolen and used to transport contraband. The recorded conversations were admissible because the car itself constituted an instrumentality of the ongoing criminal enterprise.
Property obtained as proceeds of criminal activity. Such property may be seized without a warrant from a public place when probable cause exists to believe it is forfeitable contraband.
Campus police received a tip that Samantha used embezzled grant funds to buy her sedan. Officers located the car in a faculty lot open to visitors during business hours and seized it without a warrant on probable cause that the vehicle itself was forfeitable contraband. A later inventory search uncovered cash and falsified ledgers in the glove box.
Investigators learned that Cameron paid cash for a cargo van two weeks after receiving large deposits from an illegal sports-betting ring. They seized the van from a stadium lot accessible from public streets and conducted an inventory search that revealed betting slips hidden under the floor panels.
Property obtained as proceeds of criminal activity. Such property may be seized without a warrant from a public place when probable cause exists to believe it is forfeitable contraband.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Police may seize a vehicle from a public place without a warrant when they have probable cause to believe the vehicle itself is forfeitable contraband. The subsequent inventory search yields admissible evidence if the initial seizure was lawful.
A location remains public for seizure purposes when it is accessible from public streets and routinely used by visitors or delivery drivers even if signs restrict use or a permit is required for overnight parking.
After inheriting a parcel purchased with drug-sale proceeds, the heir offered it for sale subject to a reasonable right of first refusal held by a designated family member. The preemptive right did not restrain alienation because the price and exercise period were reasonable under the governing standards.
A defendant was charged with receiving property he knew had been taken in a burglary. The goods themselves were fruits of the crime and therefore subject to forfeiture even though the defendant claimed he had acquired them for value.
Probable cause that the vehicle was purchased with proceeds of criminal activity satisfies the standard. Bank records showing a cash purchase shortly after illicit deposits are ordinarily sufficient.
…to the Confrontation Clause that make no claim to be a surrogate means of assessing reliability. For example, the rule of forfeiture by wrongdoing (which we accept) extinguishes confrontation claims on essentially equitable grounds; it does not purport to be an alternative means of determining reliability. See Reynolds…