Georgia House Speaker David Ralston has named a panel of prosecutors, sheriffs, and fellow legislators to propose amendments to Georgia’s asset forfeiture laws. An earlier reform proposal from GA House Judiciary Chairman Wendell Willard was withdrawn after finding opposition (for very different reasons) from reform groups and from the state’s law enforcement community.

Reform groups, including the Institute for Justice, criticized Chairman Willard’s proposed forfeiture reforms as inadequate.

The President of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association wrote an editorial claiming, among other things, that if passed, the bill would “literally demoralize the law enforcement community to a point where we will see little public benefit in enforcing the law when it comes to drug dealers and other criminal entrepreneurs.”