BILL NUMBER: SB 450	CHAPTERED  06/26/03

	CHAPTER  23
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE  JUNE 26, 2003
	APPROVED BY GOVERNOR  JUNE 25, 2003
	PASSED THE ASSEMBLY  JUNE 19, 2003
	PASSED THE SENATE  APRIL 3, 2003

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Poochigian

                        FEBRUARY 20, 2003

   An act to amend Section 207 of the Penal Code, relating to
kidnapping.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 450, Poochigian.  Kidnapping.
   Existing law provides that every person who forcibly, or by any
other means of instilling fear, steals, takes, holds, detains, or
arrests any person in this state, and carries the person into another
country, state, or county, or into another part of the same county,
is guilty of kidnapping.  Existing law also provides for other
definitions of kidnapping, some requiring that the victim be taken or
carried away by force or forcibly.  As regards an unresisting infant
or child, the California Supreme Court, in the case of In re
Michelle D. (2002) 29 Cal.4th 600, has defined the element of force
for purposes of kidnapping as that amount of force required to take
and carry the child away a substantial distance for an illegal
purpose or with an illegal intent.
   This bill would codify that holding, and would state that it does
not constitute change in existing law.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  Section 207 of the Penal Code is amended to read:
   207.  (a) Every person who forcibly, or by any other means of
instilling fear, steals or takes, or holds, detains, or arrests any
person in this state, and carries the person into another country,
state, or county, or into another part of the same county, is guilty
of kidnapping.
   (b) Every person, who for the purpose of committing any act
defined in Section 288, hires, persuades, entices, decoys, or seduces
by false promises, misrepresentations, or the like, any child under
the age of 14 years to go out of this country, state, or county, or
into another part of the same county, is guilty of kidnapping.
   (c) Every person who forcibly, or by any other means of instilling
fear, takes or holds, detains, or arrests any person, with a design
to take the person out of this state, without having established a
claim, according to the laws of the United States, or of this state,
or who hires, persuades, entices, decoys, or seduces by false
promises, misrepresentations, or the like, any person to go out of
this state, or to be taken or removed therefrom, for the purpose and
with the intent to sell that person into slavery or involuntary
servitude, or otherwise to employ that person for his or her own use,
or to the use of another, without the free will and consent of that
persuaded person, is guilty of kidnapping.
   (d) Every person who, being out of this state, abducts or takes by
force or fraud any person contrary to the law of the place where
that act is committed, and brings, sends, or conveys that person
within the limits of this state, and is afterwards found within the
limits thereof, is guilty of kidnapping.
   (e) For purposes of those types of kidnapping requiring force, the
amount of force required to kidnap an unresisting infant or child is
the amount of physical force required to take and carry the child
away a substantial distance for an illegal purpose or with an illegal
intent.
   (f) Subdivisions (a) to (d), inclusive, do not apply to any of the
following:
   (1) To any person who steals, takes, entices away, detains,
conceals, or harbors any child under the age of 14 years, if that act
is taken to protect the child from danger of imminent harm.
   (2) To any person acting under Section 834 or 837.
  SEC. 2.  The amendment to Section 207 of the Penal Code made by
this act codifies the holding in In re Michelle D. (2002) 29 Cal.4th
600, and does not constitute a change in existing law.