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Rabern v. State

The state failed to show that the forfeiture of the defendant's home and surrounding acreage was not excessive in comparison with his use of a shed attached to the home to grow 3-inch marijuana plants.

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After police discovered 450 marijuana plants, each three inches in height, growing in a shed attached to John Wesley Rabern’s house, the State instituted an in rem forfeiture proceeding against the residence and the 5.2 acres of land upon which it stood.1 After a bench trial, the trial court found that the property was used to manufacture and store marijuana for distribution and ordered the property forfeited. Because the trial court failed to apply the three-factor analysis adopted by our Supreme Court in Thorp v. State,2 we vacated its decision and remanded the case with instructions to conduct a post-trial hearing to determine whether the forfeiture violated the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause.3

After a hearing, the trial court determined that “1 the property was being used to grow marijuana, 2 the property’s use was extensive and sufficiently close to the crime involved to render the property ‘guilty,’ and 3 the forfeiture’s harshness was not excessive in comparison with the gravity of the offense.” The trial court ordered the property forfeited in its entirety. Rabern appeals, contending, among other things, that the forfeiture amounted to an excessive fine within the meaning of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

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