No Period of Confinement is Too Small for Kidnapping Charge
When most people think of the crime of kidnapping, they envision someone being abducted from their home and taken to some remote location and held for ransom. In the real world, however, kidnapping scenarios often don't play out that way and Tennessee law allows for kidnapping to be charged when the period of confinement is as short as a few seconds.
In Tennessee, kidnapping is defined as knowingly removing or confining another person unlawfully so as to interfere substantially with that person's liberty (this is the definition of the offense of false imprisonment) under circumstances that expose that person to substantial risk of bodily injury (this additional element is what turns false imprisonment into kidnapping). It is noteworthy then, that there is no duration requirement whatsoever and that Tennessee courts have not read one into the statute as of yet.
As an example, one can look to the case of State v. Hardy, where the defendant was convicted of especially aggravated kidnapping for holding a knife to the defendant's throat and moving her a distance of five feet. Although this was a very brief episode, the appellate court held that it was sufficient to constitute kidnapping because moving someone five feet counts as "removing or confining" that person as contemplated by the statute and that the amount of time for which the person was confined is immaterial. Thus, in Tennessee a person can be kidnapped for a matter of seconds, which may lead to defendants facing such charges when they would never have contemplated that they committed a kidnapping offense.
The offense of kidnapping is a "knowing" offense, so the defentdant may be able to fight such a charge by arguing that he or she did not knowingly remove or confine the victim or that the victim was not removed or confined at all. Kidnapping is a felony in Tennessee and carries a risk of substantial prison. Thus, Tennesseans who are facing such a charge should seek the assistance of a skilled criminal defense attorney who can help the defendant to present the best possible defense.
Source: 35 TAM 35-17, 7/21/10, Jackson, McLin, 8 pages
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