GA Supreme Court: new definition of kidnapping

The Supreme Court of Georgia has adopted a new legal standard for the crime of kidnapping, ruling that prosecutors must consider four factors before deciding that significant enough movement of a victim has occurred to warrant the charge of kidnapping. In a split 4-to-3 decision written by Presiding Justice Carol Hunstein, the Court has overturned a Georgia Court of Appeals decision and thrown out kidnapping charges against Joey Allen Garza of Lee County. The high court has upheld his convictions for false imprisonment and aggravated assault.

At issue is the amount of movement required to establish kidnapping. Traditionally, the movement requirement was one of great distance. “In its earliest incarnation, the common law crime of kidnapping required the movement of the victim out of the country,” the 18-page opinion says. Georgia’s first kidnapping statute required that the victim be transported across state or county lines. But increasingly, the majority finds, the state’s kidnapping law has been used to charge people with the more serious charge of kidnapping when the facts support the less serious crime of false imprisonment.