Opinion ID: 2385419
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Kidnapping conviction

Text: Next, appellant claims that there was insufficient evidence to support a separate charge for kidnapping because the State failed to show that he employed any greater restraint on the victim than that normally incident to rape. A person commits the offense of kidnapping if, without consent, he restrains another person so as to interfere substantially with her liberty with the purpose of inflicting physical injury upon her or of engaging in sexual intercourse, deviate sexual activity, or sexual contact with her. Ark.Code Ann. § 5-11-102(a)(4) (1987). In defining kidnapping, the Criminal Code speaks in terms of restraint rather than removal. The Commentary to this statute explains that the exclusion of de minimis restraints from the definition of kidnapping is desirable since offenses such as rape or robbery necessarily contemplate restrictions on the victim's liberty while the crime is actually committed. In Arkansas, it is only when the restraint exceeds that normally incidental to the crime that the rapist or robber should also be subject to prosecution for kidnapping. Summerlin v. State, 296 Ark. 347, 756 S.W.2d 908 (1988). The kind of restraint that is considered necessary to consummate rape is that which is necessary to consummate the act. Harris v. State, 299 Ark. 433, 774 S.W.2d 121 (1989). Any additional restraint will support a conviction for kidnapping. Id. Among the factors that have been considered by courts in determining whether a separate kidnapping conviction is supportable include whether the movement or confinement (1) prevented the victim from summoning assistance; (2) lessened the defendant's risk of detection; or (3) created a significant danger or increased the victim's risk of harm. Frank J. Wozniak, Annotation: Seizure of Detention for Purpose of Committing Rape Robbery, or Other Offense as Constituting Separate Crime of Kidnapping, 39 A.L.R. 5th 283, 358 (1996). In support of his argument that the kidnapping conviction should not stand, appellant cites Summerlin v. State, supra , and Shaw v. State, 304 Ark. 381, 802 S.W.2d 468 (1991). In Summerlin , the victim was jogging along a lakeside path when she was approached by her attacker, who was nude and holding his penis. When the victim declined his offer to go for a swim, he tackled her from behind and tried to take off her shorts. While the victim was able to escape, her attacker was charged and convicted of attempted rape and kidnapping. We reversed the kidnapping conviction, concluding that the restraint employed did not exceed that normally incident to attempted rape. In Shaw , the victim voluntarily got into her attacker's vehicle, but was later driven to a dead-end road and raped. We reversed the kidnapping conviction due to the victim's testimony that she consented to her attacker's actions until the point at which he raped her. Unlike the facts in Summerlin and Shaw , the restraint employed by appellant in this case was not merely incidental to his rape of the victim. Appellant dragged the victim for approximately one city block from a lighted city street to a dark area behind a school. We cannot say that, standing alone, the length of asportation supports the kidnapping charge. However, when combining the dragging of the victim this distance with other factors present, we conclude that the restraint employed by appellant supports a separate conviction for kidnapping. By taking the victim to a dark and secluded place, appellant allowed the rape to be carried out more easily, thus preventing the victim from summoning assistance and decreasing his risk of being caught. Moreover, the restraint itself posed a substantial risk of harm to the victim, who suffered both a bruised face and swollen neck from having been dragged and strangled to the point that she nearly lost consciousness. Under these circumstances, we hold that the restraint employed exceeded that which was necessary to effectuate the crime of rape, and thus supported appellant's separate conviction for kidnapping.