PRESUMED GUILTYThe Law's Victims in the War on Drugs
Pittsburgh Press, Aug 11, 1991 By Andrew Schneider and Mary Pat Flaherty
Part one:
THE OVERVIEW
Part two:
THE WAY YOU LOOK
Part three:
INNOCENT OWNERS
Part four:
THE INFORMANTS
Part five:
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Part six:
REFORMS
First published in the Pittsburgh Press August 11-16, 1991
It's a strange twist of justice in the land of freedom. A law designed to give cops the right to confiscate and keep the luxurious possessions of major drug dealers mostly ensnares the modest homes, cars and cash of ordinary, law-abiding people. They step off a plane or answer their front door and suddenly lose everything they've worked for. They are not arrested or tried for any crime. But there is punishment, and it's severe.
This six-day series chronicles a frightening turn in the war on drugs. Ten months of research across the country reveals that seizure and forfeiture, the legal weapons meant to eradicate the enemy, have done enormous collateral damage to the innocent. The reporters reviewed 25,000 seizures made by the Drug Enforcement Administration. they interviewed 1,600 prosecutors, defense lawyers, cops, federal agents, and victims. They examined court documents from 510 cases. What they found defines a new standard of justice in America: You are presumed guilty.
About the Authors
Mary Pat Flaherty, 36, is a graduate of Northwestern Univer sity who has worked for 14 years at The Pittsburgh Press where she currently is a special editor/news and a Sunday columnist.
In 1986, she won a Pulitzer Prize for specialized reporting for a series she wrote with Andrew Schneider on the international market in human kidneys. She was the first recipient of the Distinguished Writing Award given by the Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers Association; twice has won writer of the year awards from Scripps Howard and has received numerous state and regional reporting awards.
Her assignments at The Press have included coverage of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and a 5week trip through refugee camps in Africa.
Andrew Schneider, 48, be gan reporting for The Pittsburgh Press in 1984. Since that time, he has won two consecutive Pulitzer Prizes; in 1985 for the series he co-wrote with Mary Pat Flaherty on abuses in the organ transplant system, and in 1986, for a series, with Matthew Brelis, on airline safety, which also won the Roy W. Howard public service award.
His other work includes a series with reporters Lee Bowman and Thomas Buell on safety problems of the nation's railroads and a series with Bowman, exposing deficiencies in Red Cross disaster services.
Before joining The Press, he worked for UPI, the Associated Press and Newsweek. He is the founder of the National Institute of Advanced Reporting at Indiana University.
Part one:
THE OVERVIEW
Part two:
THE WAY YOU LOOK
Part three:
INNOCENT OWNERS
Part four:
THE INFORMANTS
Part five:
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Part six:
REFORMS