The following resources were cited in SPLC report: Ending Business as Usual: The Need for Alabama Civil Asset Forfeiture Data Transparency
Leah Nelson, “How a Couple Lost Everything Because of $50 Worth of Marijuana, a Lunesta Pill, and an Overzealous Drug Task Force Armed with the Power to Seize Their Assets,” Alabama Appleseed, March 30, 2019, https://alabamaappleseed.org/author/nelson/how-a-couple-lost-everything-because-of-50-worth-of-marijuana-a-lunesta-pill-and-an-overzealous-drug-task-force-armed-with-the-power-to-seize-their-assets/.
“Asset Forfeiture Abuse,” American Civil Liberties Union, https://www.aclu.org/issues/criminal-law-reform/reforming-police/asset-forfeiture-abuse. (Website accessed December 20, 2024.)
Heather Gann, “Alabama Couple Awarded $1 Million for Unconstitutional Police Raid They Said Left Them Homeless,” AL.com, February 11, 2024, https://www.al.com/news/2024/02/alabama-couple-awarded-1-million-for-unconstitutional-police-raid-they-say-left-them-homeless.html.
C.J. Ciaramella, “An Alabama Couple’s Lives Were Upended by an Unconstitutional Police Raid. A Jury Awarded Them $1 Million,” Reason Magazine, February 9, 2024, https://reason.com/2024/02/09/an-alabama-couples-lives-were-upended-by-an-unconstitutional-police-raid-a-jury-awarded-them-1-million/.
Josh Moon, “How Alabama’s Civil Forfeiture Laws Left a Couple Living in a Storage Shed,” Alabama Political Reporter, April 4, 2019, https://www.alreporter.com/2019/04/04/how-alabamas-civil-forfeiture-laws-left-a-couple-living-in-a-storage-shed/.
Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, “Legislative Report: FY 2023 Alabama Forfeiture Report,” https://www.alea.gov/sites/default/files/AFAS%20FY23%20Final%20Report.pdf.
David Gambino, “Lawmaker Concerned About Civil Asset Forfeiture as Police, DA Seek Property Tied to Arrests,” The Decatur Daily, November 26, 2024, https://www.aol.com/lawmaker-concerned-civil-asset-forfeiture-134400259.html (Article accessed through Aol.com).
Louis S. Rulli, “Civil Forfeiture Decision ‘May Present Hope as Well as Disappointment’,” University of Pennsylvania Law School, May 15, 2024, https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/news/16740-civil-forfeiture-decision-may-present-hope-as-well.
American Civil Liberties Union, “Asset Forfeiture Abuse.”
Cody Mello-Klein, “What is Civil Asset Forfeiture, the Unlikely Center of Netflix’s Action Movie ‘Rebel Ridge’? Expert Explains the Reality Behind the Movie,” Northeastern Global News, September 12, 2024, https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/09/12/rebel-ridge-civil-asset-forfeiture/.
Lisa Knepper, Jennifer McDonald, Kathy Sanchez, and Elyse Smith Pohl, “Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture: 3rd Edition,” Institute for Justice, https://ij.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/policing-for-profit-3-web.pdf.
Leah Nelson and Will Tucker, “Forfeiting Your Rights: How Alabama’s Profit-Driven Civil Asset Forfeiture Scheme Undercuts Due Process and Property Rights,” Southern Poverty Law Center and Alabama Appleseed, 2018, https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/com_civil_asset_forfeiture_report_finalnocrops.pdf.
Katherine Baicker and Mireille Jacobson, “Finders Keepers: Forfeiture Laws, Policing Incentives, and Local Budgets,” National Bureau of Economic Research, May 2004, https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w10484/w10484.pdf.
Darpana Sheth, “Incentives Matter: The Not-So-Civil Side of Civil Forfeiture,” The Federal Lawyer, July 2016, https://www.fedbar.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Civil-Forfeiture-pdf.pdf.
Erik Ortiz, “Alabama Town’s Traffic Ticketing Scandal Leads to Police Chief’s Resignation,” NBC News, January 28, 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alabama-towns-traffic-ticketing-scandal-leads-police-chiefs-resignatio-rcna13801.
John Archibald, “Inside the Remarkable Rise and Fall of Alabama’s Most Predatory Police Force,” AL.com, May 10, 2023, https://www.al.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-remarkable-rise-and-fall-of-alabamas-most-predatory-police-force.html.
Hudnall, M., Lewis, D., Parton, J. (January 2025).“Crime In Alabama” https://crime.alabama.gov.
Coleman v. Town of Brookside Alabama, U.S. District Court, Northern Division of Alabama (2022), https://ij.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ecf-32-first-amended-complaint.pdf.
John Archibald, “Police in This Tiny Alabama Town Suck Drivers into Legal ‘Black Hole’,” Al.com, January 20, 2022, https://www.al.com/news/2022/01/police-in-this-tiny-alabama-town-suck-drivers-into-legal-black-hole.html.
John Archibald, “Brookside Police Chief Mike Jones Resigns After AL.com Report on Traffic Trap,” AL.com, January 26, 2022, https://www.al.com/news/2022/01/brookside-police-chief-mike-jones-resigns-after-alcom-report-on-traffic-trap.html.
John Archibald, “Pastor, Sister Say Rogue Alabama Police Force Sought Revenge,” AL.com, May 10, 2023, https://www.al.com/news/2022/01/pastor-sister-say-rogue-alabama-police-force-sought-revenge.html.
Ashley Remkus, “Judge Throws Out Dozens of Cases from Brookside Police, Cites ‘Lack of Credibility’,” Al.com, April 7, 2022, https://www.al.com/news/2022/03/judge-throws-out-dozens-of-cases-from-brookside-police-cites-lack-of-credibility.html.
Josh Gauntt, “New Brookside Interim Chief Looking to Build Trust Back in the Community,” WBRC News, February 11, 2022, https://www.wbrc.com/2022/02/12/new-brookside-interim-chief-looking-build-trust-back-community.
Alabama Code § 20-2-93 (2023), https://law.justia.com/codes/alabama/title-20/chapter-2/article-5/section-20-2-93/.
Alabama Senate Bill 282 (2022), https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/files/pdf/SearchableInstruments/2022RS/PrintFiles/SB282-Enr.pdf.
Culley v. Marshall, 601 U.S. __ (2024), https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/22-585_k5fm.pdf.
Adam Liptak, ”Supreme Court Rules Against Alabama Women Whose Cars Were Seized by Police,” The New York Times, May 9, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/us/politics/supreme-court-alabama-police-seized-cars.html.
Alabama Senate Bill 191 (2019), https://legiscan.com/AL/text/SB191/id/2049621.
Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, “Legislative Report: FY 2021 Alabama Forfeiture Report,” https://www.alea.gov/sites/default/files/inline-files/FY2021%20AFAS%20Annual%20Report.pdf. ALEA forfeiture reports also detail data at the county and municipal levels. This research chose to report data by judicial branches because it displays a cleaner representation of all forfeiture data without overlapping or omitting geographies. We compare FY 2021 and FY 2023 as the first and most recent data reports available at the time this research was conducted.
According to data from Clio, a legal practice management software company, attorneys practicing Alabama civil litigation average a rate of $248 per hour. https://www.clio.com/resources/legal-trends/compare-lawyer-rates/al/