Police and prosecutors will have a harder time taking Ohioans’ property under a bill signed this month by Gov. John Kasich. That’s an advance for due process.

Under civil asset forfeiture, police and prosecutors can turn a citizen’s property into government property on the theory that it was used in a crime or obtained through one — without ever charging anyone with that crime. In the past, they only had to prove their case by a preponderance of the evidence — and they didn’t even have to sue the owner. They could sue the property itself, Daniel Dew, criminal justice fellow at the Buckeye Institute, told The Blade editorial board.

But under H.B. 347, in most cases, Ohio prosecutors will need a conviction to take property. There are exceptions; for example, the state doesn’t have to prosecute a dead person. And the bill creates a new kind of forfeiture lawsuit in which the prosecutor can try to prove that the asset he’s seeking is the proceeds of crime. But the new procedure can only be used for assets worth more than $15,000, the lawsuit has to be brought against the owner, and the standard of proof is high — clear and convincing evidence.

If the state wants to take property away because of something it thinks a person did, it should have to prove its case. And the burden of proof should be high, because an error in the state’s favor means an innocent citizen loses property he’s earned, whereas an error in the citizen’s favor only means the government doesn’t get to take something away.

Criminals, of course, shouldn’t get to keep their ill-gotten gains. But there are two different reasons for that. One is that thieves and fraudsters should have to return their loot, but (at least if there’s no conviction) that can and should be handled by ordinary civil lawsuits.

The other reason is that crime shouldn’t pay. Making crime unappealing is the one purpose of punishment.

Just as the state shouldn’t fine or imprison people without proof beyond a reasonable doubt, it shouldn’t take their assets without a high level of proof.

First Published January 26, 2017, 5:00 a.m.