112
Syllabus
(b) The statute's use of the unqualified term "owner" in three places is sufficiently unambiguous to foreclose any contention that the protection afforded to innocent owners is limited to bona fide purchasers. That the funds respondent used to purchase her home were a gift does not, therefore, disqualify her from claiming that she is such an owner. P. 123. (c) Contrary to the Government's contention, the statute did not vest ownership in the United States at the moment when the proceeds of the illegal drug transaction were used to pay the purchase price of the property at issue, thereby preventing respondent from ever becoming an "owner." Neither of the "relation back" doctrines relied on by the Government—the doctrine embodied in § 881(h), which provides that "[a]ll right, title and interest in property described in subsection (a) . . . shall vest in the United States upon commission of the act giving rise to forfeiture under this section," or the common-law doctrine, under which a forfeiture decree effectively vests title to the offending res in the Government as of the date of the offending conduct—makes the Government an owner of property before forfeiture has been decreed. Assuming that the common-law doctrine applies, it is clear that the fictional and retroactive vesting of title thereunder is not self-executing, but occurs only when the Government wins a judgment of forfeiture. Until then, someone else owns the property and may invoke any available defense, including the assertion that she is an innocent owner. A reading of § 881(h) demonstrates that it did not dispense with, but merely codified, the common-law doctrine and leads to the same result. The legislative history reveals that § 881(h) applies only to property that is subject to civil forfeiture under § 881(a). Although proceeds traceable to illegal drug transactions are, in § 881(h)'s words, "property described in subsection" (a)(6), the latter subsection exempts from civil forfeiture proceeds owned by one unaware of their criminal source and therefore must allow an assertion of the innocent owner defense before § 881(h) applies. Pp. 123-129. (d) This Court need not resolve, inter alia, the parties' dispute as to the point at which guilty knowledge of the tainted character of property will deprive a party of an innocent owner defense, because respondent has assumed the burden of convincing the trier of fact that she had no knowledge of the alleged source of Brenna's gift when she received it. Pp. 129-131.
Justice Scalia, joined by Justice Thomas, concluded: 1. While it is true that § 881(a)(6)'s "innocent owner" exception produces the same result as would an "innocent owner" exception to traditional common-law forfeiture (with its relation-back principle), that conclusion cannot be based upon the plurality's implausible reading of the
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