Court Opinion

ID: 9487589
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:21:25.791549+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:22.701816
License: Public Domain

*328DAVID A. NELSON, Circuit Judge, concurring.
I concur in all but Part III A of the court’s opinion, which deals "with an issue I do not think we need to reach.
Under Ohio law, as Part III B of the opinion explains, what distinguishes kidnapping of the first degree from kidnapping of the second degree is failure to release the victim in a safe place unharmed. The defendant in the case at bar pleaded guilty to a charge of attempt to commit a kidnapping which, because it would not have been followed by a release of the victim in a safe place unharmed, would necessarily have qualified as a felony of the first degree. The materiality of the allegation in the indictment regarding failure to release the victim in a safe place unharmed is thus beyond dispute; the allegation cannot be disregarded as mere surplusage.
Where a defendant admits, as this defendant did, that he attempted to kidnap his victim without releasing her in a safe place “unharmed,” it seems obvious to me that the offense “presents a serious potential risk of physical injury” within the meaning of those words as used in 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii).. Any attempt at kidnapping in which the perpetrator does not intend that his victim be released in a safe place unharmed (and none of the dissent’s examples falls in this category) is bound to entail a serious potential risk of injury. It entails such a risk whether or not the perpetrator’s intent ultimately happens to be frustrated for one reason or another.
Because the defendant in this case admitted that he did not intend that his victim be released in a safe place unharmed, the attempted kidnapping was one that would carry a serious potential risk of injury even if we answered “no” to the question whether kidnapping by deception carries such a risk ipso facto. I therefore see no reason to decide the latter question.