Also known as: abducts · abducted · abducting · abduction · abductions · kidnap · kidnapping
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
To take a person away by force, threat, or deception from a place where the person is found or from the custody of another.
Aaron Adams and an accomplice enter a convenience store and abduct the clerk at gunpoint to force open the safe. When the clerk dies from injuries sustained during the struggle, prosecutors charge murder. The abduction supplies the predicate felony that triggers the statutory presumption of extreme indifference to human life.
Antonio Alvarado directs associates to sedate a rival researcher in her hotel room and transport her across the state line. Because the movement occurs only between two states rather than from one country into another, the conduct does not satisfy the common law requirement for kidnapping.
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Austin Abbott, a shift manager, directs his company to send employee Amber Alonzo to a distant facility, cancel her return travel, and assign escorts that prevent contact with her husband. The company’s intentional measures constitute abduction of a spouse that subjects both the manager and the employer to liability for harm to the husband’s marital interests.
Alexis Archer is cornered by an assailant who threatens to abduct her and transport her to a remote location. Believing deadly force is necessary to prevent the kidnapping, she uses a weapon in response. The threatened abduction supplies one of the enumerated harms that can justify the use of deadly force.
Anthony Arnold, knowing the mother does not consent, persuades her twelve-year-old son to leave home and stay at a remote cabin. The abduction of the child subjects Arnold to liability to the mother for interference with her custodial rights.
Atlas Ventures executives abduct a competitor’s employee from a parking lot and confine her for several hours to obtain trade secrets. The removal from the place where she is found, accomplished by deception and for the purpose of facilitating a felony, satisfies the elements of kidnapping.
Common law kidnapping requires forcible abduction and transportation from one country into another. The Model Penal Code requires only unlawful removal a substantial distance or confinement for a substantial period in isolation, accomplished by force, threat, or deception, when done for one of several listed purposes.
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One who abducts a spouse or uses similar intentional action to compel the spouses to remain apart is subject to liability to the other spouse for harm to legally protected marital interests such as companionship and affection.
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Yes. A person who, with knowledge that the parent does not consent, abducts or otherwise compels or induces a minor child to leave the parent is subject to liability to the parent for interference with custodial rights.
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When a homicide occurs during the commission of kidnapping, the actor’s recklessness is presumed to manifest extreme indifference to the value of human life, elevating the offense to murder.
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Yes. Deadly force may be justified when the actor believes it is necessary to protect against kidnapping, provided the actor did not provoke the encounter with the purpose of causing death or serious bodily harm and could not safely retreat.
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…and the officers testified to the prior oral confession made by Miranda during the interrogation. Miranda was found guilty of kidnapping and rape. He was sentenced to 20 to 30 years' imprisonment on each count, the sentences to run concurrently. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Arizona held that Miranda's constitutional…