CHAPTER  XIX.

 

EXTORTION

 

CONTENTS

 

SECTION 1. Extortion defined.

2.     Extortion by imputation of crime.

3.     No evidence of the guilt or innocence of the party extorted from, admissible.

4.   Extortion by threatening to charge or impute deformity or disease.

5.   Extortion by threatening to injure property

6.   Extorting signature.

7.   Extortion by a public officer

8.     Punishment for extortion in the first degree.

9.     Punishment extortion in the second degree

 

1.  Extortion is the wresting anything of value from another by duress, menaces, or by any undue exercise of power.

 

2.  Whoever commits extortion by charging or threatening to charge another or any person in whom he is specially interested by reason of marriage, relationship, guardianship, friendship, or other tie, with any crime, is, in case such crime be capital, or subject to punishment by imprisonment for five years or more, guilty of extortion in the first degree; in case it be an offense of a lower grade, ho is guilty of extortion in the second degrees

 

3.  In prosecutions under the preceding section, no evidence of the guilt or innocence of the party against whom the extortion is practiced, is admissible.

 

4.  Whoever commits extortion by threatening to charge or impute any secret deformity or disease to him or any person in whom he is specially interested as aforesaid,, is guilty of extortion in the second degree.

 

5.  Whoever commits extortion by threatening, directly or indirectly, by words, signs or acts, to burn, destroy, waste, deface, or injure his property, real or personal, or that of another in whom he is specially interested, or to do him or such other any malicious injury, is guilty of extortion in the second degree.

 

6. Whoever by violence, duress, or other threats, as aforesaid, compels or induces another to sign or execute, or to confess or acknowledge the signature or execution of any deed, note, or other writing, which, if voluntarily made, would affect the rights and interests of the maker and signer thereof, with intent to avail himself of such writing, or enable any other person to avail himself thereof as being valid shall be subject to the punishment hereinafter prescribed for extortion in the second degree.

 

7.   Whoever, being a public officer  of any description, civil, judicial, military, or other, by color of his office, willfully and corruptly extorts from another for, his own benefit and profit, any thing of value, knowing that he has not any legal authority or right to exact the same, is guilty of extortion in the second degree

 

8.  Whoever is guilty of. extortion in the first degree, shall be punished by imprisonment at hare labor not more than five years; or by fines not exceeding one thousand dollars. 

 

9.  Whoever is guilty of extortion in the second degree, shall be punished by imprisonment at hard labor, not more than two years, or by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars.