Legal Question in Criminal Law in Kentucky

Re: Just a few questions for college flow chart

This is a difficult question to answer. In Kentucky, Chapter 509 of the Kentucky Revised Statutes covers 4 similar crimes: Kidnapping, Unlawful Imprisonment in the First Degree, Unlawful Imprisonment in the Second Degree, and Custodial Interference. You can review the definitions of these crimes at: http://162.114.4.13/KRS/509-00/CHAPTER.HTM

Under federal law, there is a complex system of kidnapping laws, with different punishments depending upon who you kidnap (the president, a senator, your sister's child, etc., where you take them (into another state, into another country), and the purpose of the kidnapping (ransom, terrorism, sexual slavery, a claim to custody, etc.)

These crimes are in Section 18 of the U.S. Code, and can be found at:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/search/uscode18.html

To make matters even more complicated, each of our 50 states has a different criminal code, and the question of which state's law applies (where the victim was kidnapped, where the victim was found, etc.) would fill up a law journal. Sometimes the federal jurisdiction overlaps (a defendant can often be tried on the same facts in both federal and state courts), and some kidnappings even involve questions of international law (a child is taken by a divorced parent, contrary to court custody order, to an Islamic country, etc.)

Ask a lawyer what time it is, and he'll tell you how to make a clock.

I home this has been helpful.