CONGRESS REVISES RULES ON PROPERTY SEIZURES IN DRUG CASES

WASHINGTON, April 11 -- Following years of complaints of abusive
government conduct, Congress completed legislation today that would
make it harder for law enforcement authorities to confiscate property
before they actually bring criminal charges in narcotics and other
cases.

The White House announced that Mr. Clinton would sign the legislation,
a compromise measure approved unanimously by a voice vote of the House
of Representatives. The measure, which was approved by the Senate
three weeks ago, will add significant new safeguards that will make it
more difficult for prosecutors to seize homes, cars and other property
before trials begin. But it also expands the government's authority to
confiscate property after convictions.

The legislation is a byproduct of criticism by the United States
Supreme Court and other courts that the lax standards of the current
law had repeatedly permitted prosecutors to confiscate assets of
innocent parties, creating enormous hardships and requiring onerous
litigation in order to try to win back money, cars, homes and
businesses that were never part of any criminal scheme.

The earlier laws were part of a decades' long trend to expand the
authority of law enforcement at the height of what were then called
the wars on drugs and terrorism.

The measure adopted today is the result of a remarkable coalition of
liberals and conservatives in Congress and a remarkably diverse array
of organizations from the American Civil Liberties Union and the
National Rifle Association to the American Bankers Association, the
United States Chamber of Commerce and pilot, boating, hotel and
housing organizations.

The measure both flips the burden of proof to the government and
raises the legal standard for seizures prior to conviction. Under the
existing law, once the government makes a relatively low showing of
probable cause that the property is subject to civil forfeiture, the
onus shifts to the owner to establish that the property is "innocent."
Under the new law, the government must show there was a substantial
connection between the property and the crime "by preponderance of the
evidence," a somewhat higher burden than probable cause.

The new law also expands possible defenses, awards lawyers fees to
owners who successfully challenge the seizure of their property, and
provides government-paid lawyers to indigent property owners in many
instances.

But the legislation also offers some benefits to law enforcement
officials, which was necessary to win the support from the Justice
Department. It would make it easier, for instance, for prosecutors to
seize property following criminal convictions. It relaxes the statute
of limitations to criminal forfeiture actions. And it gives the
government greater access to financial records in many instances.

Those provisions helped the sponsors of the legislation win the
support of the White House, which had opposed legislation that had
overwhelmingly passed the House last June that would have imposed even
more restraints on law enforcement authorities. The Senate ultimately
watered down the measure and adopted it by voice vote last month
following little debate.