§707-720 - Kidnapping.

PART IV.
KIDNAPPING AND RELATED OFFENSES; CRIMINAL COERCION

§707-720 Kidnapping. (1) A person
commits the offense of kidnapping if the person intentionally or knowingly
restrains another person with intent to:

(a) Hold that person for ransom or reward;

(b) Use that person as a shield or hostage;

(d) Inflict bodily injury upon that person or subject
that person to a sexual offense;

(e) Terrorize that person or a third person;

(f) Interfere with the performance of any
governmental or political function; or

(g) Unlawfully obtain the labor or services of that
person, regardless of whether related to the collection of a debt.

(2) Except as provided in subsection (3),
kidnapping is a class A felony.

(3) In a prosecution for kidnapping, it is a
defense which reduces the offense to a class B felony that the defendant
voluntarily released the victim, alive and not suffering from serious or
substantial bodily injury, in a safe place prior to trial. [L 1972, c 9, pt of
§1; am L 1986, c 314, §53; gen ch 1992; am L 2008, c 147, §2]

Case Notes

Evidence held sufficient to show defendant restrained victim
to subject victim to sexual offense. 61 H. 475, 605 P.2d 75.

Trial judge erred in refusing to instruct jury regarding the
possible merger of the robbery and kidnapping counts against defendant. 77 H.
17, 881 P.2d 504.

Prosecution adduced substantial evidence from which a person
of reasonable caution could conclude that defendant intentionally or knowingly
restrained officer and intended to inflict bodily injury upon officer in
violation of subsection (1)(d) where officer testified that defendant had
pinned officer's arm against car's steering wheel and dragged officer thirty
yards down the street while officer was hanging outside the vehicle. 95 H.
465, 24 P.3d 661.

Where handgun constituted a significant piece of evidence
pertaining to the state of mind requisite to the charged offense of
kidnapping-with-the-intent-to-terrorize, trial court's admission of testimony
regarding the handgun was not erroneous because the testimony's probative value
outweighed any potential prejudice. 118 H. 493, 193 P.3d 409.

Where jurors could have found that defendant's culpable
acts of either the morning or afternoon of April 10, 2004 established the
conduct element of the kidnapping count, and trial court did not issue a
specific unanimity instruction to the jury regarding defendant's kidnapping
charge, appellate court erred in affirming trial court's kidnapping conviction
under this section. 118 H. 493, 193 P.3d 409.

No evidence that defendant voluntarily released the victim in
a safe place. 6 H. App. 77, 711 P.2d 1303.

Trial court's jury instruction that "terrorize means the
risk of causing another person serious alarm for his or her personal
safety" had no basis in Hawaii's criminal statutes, derogated the culpable
state of mind required for conviction under subsection (1)(e), and was not
harmless error. 98 H. 208 (App.), 46 P.3d 1092.

A defense under subsection (3) imposed upon the State the
burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant (a) did not release
the victim alive, (b) prior to trial, (c) voluntarily, (d) the victim was not
suffering from serious or substantial bodily injury, or (e) did not release
the victim in a safe place; if and when the State satisfied its burden of
disproving one or more of these five elements, it disproved the defense;
failure of the jury instructions to connect "release" and "prior
to trial" was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. 102 H. 346 (App.), 76
P.3d 589.