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W. Va. Code § 61-2-14

Abduction of person; kidnapping or concealing child; penalties

Applied in 16 court decisions — leading case United States v. Gonzalez-Ramirez (2007)

Most recently applied in State of West Virginia v. Alvaro A. Vilela (October 2016)

How often courts cite this section

1984199020002010201630
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.

(a) Any person who takes away another person, or detains another person against such person's will, with intent to marry or defile the person, or to cause the person to be married or defiled by another person; or takes away a child under the age of sixteen years from any person having lawful charge of such child, for the purpose of prostitution or concubinage, shall be guilty of a felony, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be confined in the penitentiary not less than three nor more than ten years.

(b) Any person, other than the father or mother, who illegally, or for any unlawful, improper or immoral purpose other than the purposes stated in subsection (a) of this section or section fourteen-a or fourteen-c of this article, seizes, take or secretes a child under sixteen years of age, from the person or persons having lawful charge of such child, shall be guilty of a felony, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be confined in the penitentiary not less than one nor more than ten years.

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