Subject: FEAR: Important Forfeiture Decision: U.S. v. Pease (11th Cir. 2003) - criminal forfeiture & sentencing
From: Brenda Grantland
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 20:21:06 -0800
To: FEAR-LIST@mapinc.org

U.S. v. Pease, 331 F.3d 809 (11th Cir. 2003)

In this case, the court quite logically held that, in a criminal forfeiture case, when no final order of forfeiture is imposed upon the defendant at the time of sentencing, and the sentencing becomes a final judgment, the court cannot increase the punishment after the fact by imposing a judgment of forfeiture.  The fact that the court had issued a preliminary order of forfeiture before the sentencing did not change matters.  The 11th Circuit held that the preliminary order expired at sentencing when forfeiture was not mentioned in the punishment and the court failed to issue a valid final order of forfeiture.

This decision interprets the old Rule 32 (pre-CAFRA).

If the link above does not work, you can find the opinion on the FEAR website at http://www.fear.org/opinions/331f3d808.html