OUJI-CR 6-53

ESCAPE FROM PENAL INSTITUTION - ELEMENTS

No person may be convicted of escape from a penal institution unless the State has proved beyond a reasonable doubt each element of the crime. These elements are:

    First, escape from a (county/ city jail);

    Second, by a (prisoner in a county/city jail;

    Third, (awaiting charges for a felony offense)/(awaiting trial)/(having been sentenced on a felony charge to the Department of Corrections)/(having been lawfully detained);

    Fourth, while he/she is (actually confined there)/(permitted to be at large as a trusty)/(awaiting transportation to a Department of Corrections facility to serve his/her sentence).

            OR

    First, escape from the custody of the Department of Corrections;

    Second, by an inmate in its custody;

    Third, while (actually confined in a correctional facility)/(assigned to a house arrest program)/(assigned to the Preparole Conditional Supervision Program)/(assigned to an alternative incarceration authorized by law)/(permitted to be at large as a trusty).

[An inmate assigned to (house arrest)/(the Preparole Conditional Supervision Program)/(an alternative incarceration authorized by law) shall be considered to have escaped if (the inmate cannot be located within a 24 hour period)/(the inmate fails to report to a confining facility/institution as directed).]

[Custody means either imprisonment by physical means or restraint by a superior force acting as a moral restraint.]

[Escape means a departure from custody, with or without force, whether from the custody of an officer or from any place where one is lawfully confined.]

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Statutory Authority: 21 O.S. 2011, § 443.

Committee Comments

    The first bracketed paragraph is taken from 21 O.S. 2011, § 443(C). The definitions in the last two paragraphs are based on Urbauer v. State, 1987 OK CR 231, ¶ 5, 744 P.2d 1274, 1275. See also Hunt v. State, 1990 OK CR 37, ¶¶ 6-9, 793 P.2d 1366, 1368 (affirming conviction of prisoner who escaped while he was at liberty on a weekend pass).

2012 SUPPLEMENT