R ESC U E. The forcibly and knowingly freeing another from arrest or imprisonment. 4 Bla. Com. 131. A deliverance of a prison er from lawful custody by a third person. 2 Bish. Cr. Law § 1065; 1 Russ. Cr. § 597. Taking and setting at liberty, against law, a distress taken for rent, services, or damage feasant. Bacon, Abr. Rescous.
If the rescued prisoner was arrested for felony, then the rescuer is a felon ; if for treason, a traitor ; 3 P. Wms. 468 ; Cro. Car. 583 ; and if for a trespass, he is liable to a fine as if he had committed the original of fence ; Hawk. Pl. Cr. b. 5, c. 21. See U. S. v. Dodge, 2 Gall. 313, Fed. Cas. No. 14,975; Russ. & R. 432. If the principal be acquit ted, the rescuer may nevertheless be fined for the misdemeanor in the obstruction and contempt of public justice; 1 Hale, Pl. Cr. 598.
In order to render the rescuer criminal, it is necessary he should have knowledge that the person whom he sets at liberty has been apprehended for a criminal offence, if he is in the custody of a private person; but if he be under the care of a public officer, then he is to take notice of it at his peril ; 1 Hale, Pl. Cr. 606. See 1 Car. & M. 299.
A departure from an unlawful imprison ment or custody is not an escape ; and one who, without violence, assists a person who is confined without authority of law to de part from his place of confinement, is not guilty of the crime of assisting a prisoner to escape ; People v. Ah Teung, 92 Cal. 421,
28 Pac. 577, 15 L. R. A. 190; State v. Leach, 7 Conn. 452, 18 Am. Dec. 113. See BREACH OF PRISON; ESCAPE.
The rescue of cattle and goods distralned by pound-breach is a common-law offense and indictable ; 7 C. & P. 233 ; Com. v. Beale, 5 Pick. (Mass.) 514.
In Maritime Law. The retaking by a party captured of a prize made by the enemy. There is still another kind of rescue which partakes of the nature of a recapture: it occurs when the weaker party, before he is overpowered, obtains relief from the arrival of fresh succors, and is thus preserved from the force of the enemy. 1 C. Rob. 224, 271; Halleck, Int. Law cxxxv Rescue differs from recapture. The res cuers do not by the rescue become owners of the property, as if it had been a new prize : but the property is restored to the original owners by the rule of postliminium.