Banks v. State ( 2004 )

Fletcher, Chief Justice,

concurring.

Because a forfeiture hearing is a quasi-criminal proceeding,¹ if OCGA § 16-13-49 (s) (1) were interpreted to authorize the State to use inadmissible hearsay to support a final judgment of forfeiture, then that statute would violate a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right of confrontation. The majority opinion properly limits the use of hearsay in a forfeiture hearing to the issue of whether the State had sufficient probable cause to conduct the search, and I fully concur with that opinion.

1 Pitts v. State of Ga., 207 Ga. App. 606, 607 (428 SE2d 650) (1993); One 1958 Plymouth Sedan v. Pennsylvania, 380 U. S. 693, 700 (85 SC 1246, 14 LE2d 170) (1965).