Supreme Court in People v. Daniels

In Supreme Court in People v. Daniels (1969) 71 Cal.2d 1119, two defendants committed a series of home invasions. They forced their female victims to move around inside their apartments in order to rob and rape them. The women were forced to walk a distance of 18 feet, 5 to 6 feet and 30 feet respectively. (Id. at p. 1126.) The Daniels court reversed three convictions of kidnapping for the purpose of robbery. It concluded that the victims' movements made in furtherance of the robberies were merely incidental to the crimes. (Daniels, supra, 71 Cal.2d at p. 1140.) The court was concerned that the Legislature had not intended such incidental movements to constitute asportation sufficient to establish kidnapping. (Id. at pp. 1131, 1134.) It wished to preclude convictions based on movements of a robbery victim that "are merely incidental to the commission of the robbery and do not substantially increase the risk of harm over and above that necessarily present in the crime of robbery itself." (Id. at p. 1139.)