Brown v. State

OPINION

in which KELLER, P.J., MEYERS, PRICE, WOMACK, JOHNSON, KEASLER, and HOLCOMB, JJ., joined.

The punishment level for aggravated kidnapping is reduced from a first degree *182felony (5 to 99 years or life) to a second degree felony (2 to 20 years)1 if the kidnapper “voluntarily released the victim in a safe place.” See Section 20.04(d), Texas Penal Code. In this case we decide that the Court of Appeals applied an improper definition of “voluntarily” in deciding that appellant’s release of the victim in a safe place was not voluntary.

The evidence showed that appellant stabbed the victim in the…