Court Opinion

ID: 9568732
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:07:04.042845+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:47:32.510539
License: Public Domain

Fletcher, Chief Justice,
concurring.
Because a forfeiture hearing is a quasi-criminal proceeding,1 if OCGA § 16-13-49 (s) (1) were interpreted to authorize the State to use inadmissible hearsay to support a final judgment of forfeiture, then that statute would violate a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right of confrontation. The majority opinion properly limits the use of hearsay in a forfeiture hearing to the issue of whether the State had sufficient probable cause to conduct the search, and I fully concur with that opinion.

 Pitts v. State of Ga., 207 Ga. App. 606, 607 (428 SE2d 650) (1993); One 1958 Plymouth Sedan v. Pennsylvania, 380 U. S. 693, 700 (85 SC 1246, 14 LE2d 170) (1965).