Indiana's top court taking up excessive seizure case again

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Supreme Court is taking up again the appeal of a man whose $42,000 Land Rover was seized when police arrested him for selling about $400 worth of heroin.

Friday's state court hearing comes after the U.S. Supreme Court sided earlier this year with Tyson Timbs, of Marion, Indiana, by ruling the Constitution's ban on excessive fines applies to the states.

Timbs pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year of house arrest. His biggest loss was the vehicle he bought with life insurance money he received after his father died.

A Grant County judge ruled taking the vehicle was disproportionate to the crime's severity. But Indiana's top court said the U.S. Supreme Court had never before ruled that states were covered by Eighth Amendment's ban on excessive fines.

Read more: https://www.nwitimes.com/news/state-and-regional/crime-and-courts/indiana-s-top-court-taking-up-excessive-seizure-case-again/article_1aea7740-8691-5ba0-9c1d-973636da9dc7.html
(Northwest Indiana Times)