Court Opinion

ID: 9750170
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 14:26:32.828599+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:03.515552
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, J.
I concur in the judgment but write separately to register my views as to what the trial court must determine at its hearing on remand. I agree with the Ninth Circuit cases cited but disapproved in the majority opinion, in particular U.S. v. $405,089.23 U.S. Currency (9th Cir. 1994) 33 F.3d 1210. Those opinions require the prosecution to prove the forfeiture it seeks will serve solely remedial purposes. To the extent the forfeiture exceeds the amount justified as remedial, the excess amount constitutes punishment. As such, it is governed by principles of double jeopardy and cannot be collected if the defendant already has suffered a criminal penalty for the same offense. (United States v. Halper (1989) 490 U.S. 435, 448-449 [104 L.Ed.2d 487, 501-502, 109 S.Ct. 1892] [“. . . a defendant who already has been punished in a criminal prosecution may not be subjected to an additional civil sanction to the extent that the second sanction may not fairly be characterized as remedial, but only as a deterrent or retribution.”].) To avoid double jeopardy, a trial court could and would have to reduce the forfeiture to an amount reasonably related to a solely remedial purpose.
Accordingly, in my view the trial court on remand must determine whether the People can justify forfeiture of any or all of the $1,930 at issue on grounds it merely compensates the government for its loss in this *852particular case. In making this assessment, the court also must take account of any other money or property the government already may have recovered from respondent. Those other assets also would be available for this same compensatory purpose. Thus the court should deduct their value from the amount required to compensate the government for its losses. Should the trial court determine some or all of the $1,930 (as an addition to any other forfeited assets) exceeds the amount rationally related to the goal of compensating the government’s loss, double jeopardy principles require the court to deny recovery of that excess.
A petition for a rehearing was denied October 23, 1995, and the opinion was modified to read as printed above. Respondent’s petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied January 4, 1996.