In United States v. Jackson, --- F.4th ---, No. 19-10070 (9th Cir. 2022), the Court reversed a conviction for kidnapping under 18 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(2), and remanded for resentencing.
The basic facts were that Jackson assaulted his ex-girlfriend. During the assault, he restrained her. The government charged him with assault and kidnapping. The jury convicted him of both.
As to the kidnapping charge, the Court noted the Supreme Court's warning that the statute should be narrowly construed to cover only true kidnapping: "Were we to sanction a careless concept of the crime of kidnaping or were we to disregard the background and setting of the Act the boundaries of potential liability would be lost in infinity. A loose construction of the statutory language conceivably could lead to the punishment of anyone who induced another to leave his surroundings and do some innocent or illegal act of benefit to the former . . . . The absurdity of such a result . . . is sufficient by itself to foreclose that construction."
The Court explained, "[t]he facts here, viewed in the light most favorable to the government, do not bear the hallmarks of a 'true kidnaping[].'"
"[T]o distinguish facts that constitute kidnapping from those that do not," the Court adopted the analysis in Government of the Virgin Islands v. Berry, 604 F.2d 221, 224 (3d Cir. 1979). Specifically, there are "four factors to guide courts and juries in defining kidnapping . . . . (1) the duration of the detention or asportation; (2) whether the detention or asportation occurred during the commission of a separate offense; (3) whether the detention or asportation which occurred is inherent in the separate offense; and (4) whether the asportation or detention created a significant danger to the victim independent of that posed by the separate offense."
"[W]e hold that, in kidnapping prosecutions under 18 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(2), courts should consider the Berry factors to evaluate whether the charged conduct constitutes kidnapping. This is a factual inquiry, taken up during a Rule 29 motion and, if appropriate based on the circumstances of the case, incorporated into jury instructions."
"Applying these factors, we conclude that the government failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a kidnapping occurred."
