Alam v. State

In Alam v. State, 776 P.2d 345 (Alaska App. 1989) the defendant drove up to a woman who was walking on the side of the road, blocked her path with his vehicle, and attempted to have her get in the vehicle. Id. at 346. When the woman ran, the defendant chased her and then struggled with her briefly before running away when the woman's screams attracted the attention of neighbors. Id. at 346-47. The Court concluded that Alam could not be convicted of kidnapping because his restraint of the woman was at most incidental to his attempt to assault her. Id. at 349-50. One of the things we relied on was a comment in the legislative history of this statute that "a defendant who forces a victim who is jogging along a bike path into the woods a few feet from the bike path in order to commit a sexual assault has not committed kidnapping." Id. at 349.