State v. One Lot of $8,560 in U.S. Currency

OPINION

WEISBERGER, Chief Justice.

These six consolidated cases 1 come before us on a certified question presented by a justice of the Superior Court. The question reads as follows:

“Whether Double Jeopardy’s ban on multiple punishments prohibits the State of Rhode Island from pursuing the civil forfeiture of suspected proceeds of illegal drug transactions, which proceeds are claimed by the individual previously convicted of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance?”

All six cases involve similar, though not identical, fact patterns. The owners of the property proposed to be forfeited…