Texas
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State Law Evasion Grade | Final Grade |
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Texas
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Forfeiture Law |
| Texas has broad civil forfeiture laws that offer little protection for property owners— and it uses them, as well as federal equitable sharing, aggressively. In civil forfeiture proceedings, the state must show that property is related to a crime and subject to forfeiture by a preponderance of the evidence. This standard is significantly lower than the beyond a reasonable doubt finding required for a criminal conviction. And property owners bear the burden for innocent owner claims, making owners, in effect, guilty until proven innocent. Moreover, law enforcement retains up to 90 percent of proceeds from civil forfeiture.Between 2001 and 2007, Texas law enforcement received more than $225 million in civil forfeiture proceeds under state law and $200 million in equitable sharing with the federal government from 2000 to 2008, although these numbers may overlap to some extent, as it is unclear whether freedom of information data includes equitable sharing revenue. |
| Forfeitures as Reported to LEMAS (Drug-related only) |
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| Equitable Sharing Proceeds from the Assets Forfeiture Fund (AFF) |
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| Freedom of Information Data |
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Reports of forfeitures from law enforcement, task forces and district attorneys
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