Yesterday, an Arizona appeals court unanimously agreed with IJ that our client Jerry Johnson must be allowed to fight to reclaim his life savings in court. This win for Jerry reinforces recent IJ-inspired legislative reforms and a simple principle: Before the government can keep your possessions through civil forfeiture, it must prove you did something wrong.
Jerry’s story is all too familiar. While he was traveling through the Phoenix airport in 2020, police seized $39,500—money that Jerry intended to use to buy a semi-truck to expand his shipping business. When Jerry first tried to recover his savings, an Arizona court wrongly held that before Jerry could contest the forfeiture, he must prove he was the innocent owner of the cash.
But “innocent until proven guilty” is a fundamental maxim of our justice system—and it’s on the government to present proof of guilt.
So IJ stepped in to help Jerry appeal, and because of our lawsuit, Arizona lawmakers overhauled the law last year to better protect people like Jerry. Our win at the Arizona Court of Appeals reinforced those protections statewide and brought Jerry one step closer to his day in court.
Yesterday’s victory is another breakthrough in IJ’s 12 front-line cases to eliminate the abusive practice of civil forfeiture entirely. Please join us with your support to fuel this mission.
Scott
Scott G. Bullock
President and General Counsel
Institute for Justice