DE · jury_instructions
Del. P.J.I. Crim. No. 11.783A(5)
Kidnapping in the First Degree
KIDNAPPING IN THE FIRST DEGREE
In order to find Defendant guilty of Kidnapping in the First Degree, you must
find the State has proved the following five (5) elements beyond a reasonable
doubt:
(1) Defendant restrained a person;
(2) Defendant restrained the person to terrorize them or a third person;
(3) Restraint of the person was independent of and not incidental to another
crime;
(4) Defendant acted unlawfully; and
(5) Defendant did not voluntarily release the person alive, unharmed and in
a safe place prior to trial.
“Unlawfully” means contrary to law or not permitted by law.
"Restrain" means Defendant intentionally restricted the person’s
movements, or substantially interfered with the person’s liberty by moving the
person from one place to another, or by confining the person in a place, without
the person’s consent. The person was moved or confined "without consent" if the
movement or confinement was accomplished by physical force, intimidation or
deception.
Restraint is "independent of and not incidental to" another crime when it
involves significantly more interference with the person’s liberty than what is
normally incidental to the other crime.
In addition to its ordinary meaning, "harm" to a kidnap victim means rape,
unlawful sexual intercourse, unlawful sexual penetration or unlawful sexual
contact, even if not accompanied by physical violence.
Provenance
- Source
- courts.delaware.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-23
- Edition
- crim-2022-03-14
- Content hash
a917137ad656392d69d00412194122c40a21e0b72133b3fb34b7609743e7d028
The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.
Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.