BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1133
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 8, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 1133 (Leno) - As Amended: June 27, 2012
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote:4-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill modifies asset forfeiture provisions regarding human
trafficking. Specifically, this bill:
1) Authorizes the forfeiture of vehicles, boats, planes, money,
negotiable instruments, real property, or other things of
value used for the purpose of facilitating human trafficking
involving a commercial sex act, where the victim is under 18
years of age, and property was acquired through human
trafficking, or when such items of value were received in
exchange for the proceeds of human trafficking involving a
person under 18 years of age, when the crime involved a
commercial sex act.
2)Specifies that 50% of the forfeiture proceeds shall be
distributed to the Victim-Witness Assistance Fund for grants
to community organizations serving human trafficking victims
and 50% of the proceeds shall be distributed to the General
Fund of the state or county, depending on the source of the
prosecution.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Unknown, likely minor forfeiture revenue increase to the state
GF, to local governments, and to the Victim-Witness Assistance
Fund. Since the state has averaged only four commitments to
state prison for human trafficking over the past five years,
any forfeiture revenue increase is likely to be relatively
minor.
2)Unknown minor GF costs to state trial courts to the extent
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additional forfeiture hearings are required. Five forfeiture
hearings would cost in the range of $15,000.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author and supporters, including the Attorney
General (AG) and the Alameda District Attorney, contend this
bill, on top of existing human trafficking forfeiture
statutes, provides prosecutors a tool to ensure persons
convicted of sex-trafficking do not retain financial benefits
from this crime. SB 1133 allows for forfeiture for one
instance of sex trafficking, rather than requiring a pattern,
and it expands the property subject to forfeiture.
2)Human Trafficking is defined as "any person who deprives or
violates the personal liberty of another person with the
intent of effect or maintains a felony violation of
enticement, pimping, pandering, abduction for the purposes of
prostitution, employing a minor in sexually explicit material,
and extortion." �Penal Code Section 236.1(a).] The crime of
human trafficking was added to the Penal Code in 2005.
3)The Major Differences Between SB 1133 and Current Forfeiture
Law , as noted in the Senate and Assembly Public Safety
Committee analyses.
a) Under existing criminal asset forfeiture law, forfeiture
is ordered after the defendant is convicted and the
prosecution establishes the defendant has engaged in a
pattern of criminal profiteering. This bill allows
forfeiture when only a single human trafficking crime is
established.
Without a pattern of criminal profiteering, it is likely
relatively little money or property would be forfeited.
This bill, however, allows not just forfeiture of the
profits of crime, but also the instrumentalities of the
crime, the property used to commit the crime. Property is
subject to forfeiture as an instrumentality if a
substantial purpose of the use of the property was to
facilitate sex trafficking of minors.
b) Under existing law, all forfeited proceeds of sex
trafficking of minors are distributed to the Victim-Witness
Assistance Fund, with 50% available for grants to
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community-based organizations. Forfeiture pursuant to this
bill specifies 50% of the proceeds shall be distributed to
the General Fund of the state or county, whichever
jurisdiction or entity prosecuted the case.
The AG states that investigating and prosecuting human
trafficking cases is costly. This bill provides some
financial relief to county or state government.
4)Support. According to the Alameda County District Attorney's
Office, "The Commercial sexual exploitation of children is big
business. Sadly, today there is no better return on money than
selling a child for sex. The sale and purchase of children
for sex is the second largest industry in our country and has
become a multi-billion dollar industry that is expected to
surpass the illicit trade in guns and narcotics within ten
years."
5)Opposition . According to the ACLU, "civil forfeiture laws
raise serious civil liberties concerns including the right to
be free from punishment that is disproportionate to the
offense. Even courts that have upheld forfeiture laws have
recognized that they are "the hardest of all our laws
respecting ownership of private property"?.
"We appreciate the author's willingness to address many of our
concerns and incorporate various due process protections for
property owners in this legislation. However, expansion of
civil asset laws beyond the very limited circumstances
currently authorized by statute - primarily for serious drug
felonies involving large amounts of drugs - remains troubling.
It sets an unnecessary precedent for expansion of asset
forfeiture for additional crimes and is a doubtful remedy in
stemming these crimes against young women."
Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081