Should Child Pornography Offenders Forfeit Their Homes?

I'll get to the topic of today's post in just a moment, but first I wanted to note what I found to be a fascinating little tidbit about the Willingham case, which I've previously addressed here and here. It has to do with Willingham's final words, and I promise that if you have the slightest interest in the case, you'll be interested in this. OK. On to today's feature presentation. I got started thinking about whether child pornography offenders can be required to forfeit their homes because of this article from Kentucky. (Hat tip: Sentencing Law & Policy.) The short summary is that a federal criminal defendant who pled guilty to receiving child pornography was sentenced to 15.5 years in prison -- and was required to forfeit his home, "because of the high volume of images and the length of time [he] used his home to download and view child pornography." I've blogged before about the controversy over child pornography sentencing. But the forfeiture question is a bird of a different feather. Would something like this be possible under North Carolina law? The short answer is no. There are lots and lots of forfeiture provisions scattered among North Carolina's criminal laws. Some are quite narrow, like the provisions for forfeiture of items used in and acquired as a result of wildlife and marine fisheries offenses, G.S. 113-137, and for forfeiture of motor vehicles involved in the disposal of more than 500 pounds of litter, G.S. 14-399(g). Others are somewhat less narrow, [...]