Kidnapping Attorney

A crime at common law consisting of an unlawful restraint of a person's liberty by force or show of force so as to send the victim into another country. Under modern law, this crime will usually be found where the victim is taken to another location or concealed.

In some jurisdictions, kidnapping accompanied by bodily injury, sexual assault, or a demand for ransom elevates the crime to first-degree or aggravated kidnapping. Although the terms kidnapping and abduction are, at times, used interchangeably, abduction is broader, generally not requiring the threat or use of force.

(a) Whoever unlawfully seizes, confines, inveigles, decoys, kidnaps, abducts, or carries away and holds for ransom or reward or otherwise any person, except in the case of a minor by the parent thereof, when

(1) the person is willfully transported in interstate or foreign commerce, regardless of whether the person was alive when transported across a State boundary, or the offender travels in interstate or foreign commerce or uses the mail or any means, facility, or instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce in committing or in furtherance of the commission of the offense;

(2) any such act against the person is done within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States;(3) any such act against the person is done within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States as defined in section 46501 of title 49;(4) the person is a foreign official, an internationally protected person, or an official guest as those terms are defined in section 1116 of this title; or

(5) the person is among those officers and employees described in section 1114 of this title and any such act against the person is done while the person is engaged in, or on account of, the performance of official duties,shall be punished by imprisonment for any term of years or for life and, if the death of any person results, shall be punished by death or life imprisonment.