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Haw. Rev. Stat. § 707-720

Kidnapping

Applied in 13 court decisions — leading case State v. Kamae (1976)

Most recently applied in United States v. Flores-Granados (April 2015)

L 1972, c 9, pt of §1; am L 1986, c 314, §53; gen ch 1992; am L 2008, c 147, §2

How often courts cite this section

19761980199020002010201520
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(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;

(c) Facilitate the commission of a felony or flight thereafter;

(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.

Official source: Hawaii State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Hawaii statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.