James Leroy Wilson's one-man magazine.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Kidnapping?

The crimes O.J. Simpson is already accused of are serious enough: armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon. But kidnapping? Yes, it is in the nature of armed robbery to "detain somebody against his will" for as long as the robbery takes place. But I thought kidnapping was abduction. I thought kidnapping was not stealing from a person, but stealing the person. Not, "Don't move, or I'll kill you," but rather "come with me, or I'll kill you." According to the new definition, apparently every armed robbery is also a kidnapping.

You learn something new every day. Either that, or the Las Vegas prosecutor isn't interested in justice, but in piling on charge after charge to encourage O.J. to plea bargain. The guy who convicted O.J., wouldn't that be something! If that is the case, the prosecutor's probably a greater threat to the public than O.J. himself is.

1 comment:

  1. It's called overcharging in order to wring a plea out of the accused. In most places, kidnapping requires an "asportation", ie some kind of movement. I had a case where my client was accused of robbing a gas station. They charged him with kidnapping because he allegedly locked the clerk in the toilet, and this was thrown out because there was insufficient asportation.

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