Opinion ID: 1202924
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Extent of Movement Required to Establish Kidnaping Under Penal Code, Section 209

Text: [15] Defendant urges that the Legislature in enacting section 209 of the Penal Code, which permits the imposition of the death penalty against any person ... who kidnaps or carries away any individual to commit robbery if the victim suffers bodily harm, intended that the movement be over a substantial distance and not merely between the rooms in a dwelling. He expressly asks this court to reconsider the position it took in People v. Chessman, supra, 38 Cal.2d 166, 190-193. There we said, The fact that Regina in being kidnaped or carried away was forced to move only 22 feet does not make her abduction any the less kidnaping within the meaning of the statute. She was taken from the car of her chosen escort, and from his company, to the car of defendant and into the latter's company and there detained as a virtual prisoner and forced to submit to his demands. It is the fact, not the distance, of forcible removal which constitutes kidnaping in this state. (38 Cal.2d 166, 192.) We there reviewed the California cases and those from other jurisdictions where kidnapings were held to exist although the asportations were not great. Here, the testimony of some of the victims fixed the amounts of movement at distances ranging from a few feet up to more than 50 feet. Under the reasoning and language of the Chessman case, any of these distances sufficed for a conviction under the challenged section. This conduct went beyond a mere detention during the course of an armed robbery, which is no longer punishable by death. (See People v. Taylor, 135 Cal. App.2d 201 [286 P.2d 952].) To the extent that defendant's argument is predicated on legislative intent, it must be noted that the Legislature has been in session several times since the Chessman case was decided, and it has not seen fit to amend the kidnaping law to limit the rule we announced. If the section, as interpreted by this court, is regarded as too harsh, the remedy is for the Legislature to redefine kidnaping, and not for this court to engraft some uncertain distance limitation onto the plain language of the section. (See People v. Knowles, 35 Cal.2d 175, 180-183 [217 P.2d 1].)