Rescue

In Criminal Law, The forcibly and knowingly freeing another from arrest or imprisonment.

4 BL Comm. 131.

A deliverance of a prisoner from lawful custody by a third person.

2 Bish. Crim. Law, i 911.

Taking and setting at liberty, against law, a distress taken for rent, services, or damage feasant. Bac. Abr. "Rescous." See "Resceu." In Maritime Law. The retaking by a party captured of a prize made by the enemy. There is still another kind of rescue which partakes of the nature of a recapture,—it occurs when the weaker party, before he is overpowered, obtains relief from the arrival of fresh succors, and is thus preserved from the force of the enemy. 1 C. Rob. Adm. 224, 271; Halleck, Int. Law, cxxxv. "Rescue" differs from "recapture." The rescuers do not, by the rescue, become owners of the property, as if it had been a new prize, but the property is restored to the original owners by the right of postliminium.