Ferris Alexander, Sr. (Defendant, now Petitioner) was convicted in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, of tax offenses, obscenity offenses, and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) violations, and he appealed. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. Certiorari was granted. The Supreme Court remanded. The U.S. District Court, Minnesota reaffirmed after remand. The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed.

After a full criminal trial, petitioner Ferris J. Alexander, owner of more than a dozen stores and theaters dealing in sexually explicit materials, was convicted on 17 obscenity counts and 3 counts of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The obscenity convictions, based on the jury’s findings that four magazines and three videotapes sold at several of petitioner’s stores were obscene, served as the predicates for his three RICO convictions.

In addition to imposing a prison term and fine, the District Court ordered petitioner to forfeit, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1963 (1988 ed. and Supp. III), certain assets that were directly related to his racketeering activity as punishment for his RICO violations. Petitioner argues that this forfeiture violated the First and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution. We reject petitioner’s claims under the First Amendment but remand for reconsideration of his Eighth Amendment challenge.

Facts

Ferris Alexander was in the so-called “adult entertainment” business for more than 30 years, selling pornographic magazines and sexual paraphernalia, showing sexually explicit movies, and eventually selling and renting videotapes of a similar nature.....

1. List all of the specific items in the forfeiture.

2. Summarize Ferris Alexander Sr.’s arguments that the forfeiture was an excessive fine.

3. Summarize the U.S. Supreme Court’s arguments supporting the forfeiture.

4. Do you think the forfeiture was excessive?