Kidnapping by Pursuit: Evading Criminal Liability in State v. Andrews.

In a case decided earlier this month, the Court of Appeals overturned the defendant’s conviction for kidnapping when the evidence showed only an unsuccessful carjacking. See State v. Andrews, No. COA23-675 (N.C. Ct. App. July 2, 2024). Given the particular facts of the case – the defendant threatened the victim with a firearm, the victim fled in his car, and the defendant gave chase in his van – the Court of Appeals might have concluded that a car chase does not constitute the sort of confinement, restraint, or removal that G.S. 14-39 (kidnapping) was intended to address. Instead, it held that the defendant’s high-speed pursuit of the victim was a restraint that was not sufficiently distinct from that inherent in the attempted armed robbery. Citing double jeopardy concerns, the Court of Appeals reversed the kidnapping conviction. This post examines the opinion in Andrews. I. Common Law and Statutory Kidnapping At common law, kidnapping was a misdemeanor defined as the unlawful confinement and transportation of another person out of the country. 3 Wayne R. LaFave, Substantive Criminal Law § 18.1 (2nd ed. 2003); cf. State v. Ripley, 360 N.C. 333, 335 (2006). In the United States, courts early on found the component of transportation out of the country to be dispensable. Lafave, Substantive Criminal Law § 18.1; State v. Dix, 282 N.C. 490, 493 (1973). Hence, common law kidnapping was defined as false imprisonment aggravated by conveying the imprisoned person to some other place. Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal [...]