(A) To stop; to seize; to deprive one of his liberty by virtue of legal authority. (B) It is the situation when a person is detained by police and that a reasonable person would believe they are not free to leave. An arrest does not require an announcement or the use of handcuffs or physical restraint. Questioning a person after arrest requires the Miranda warning that what is said can be used against the defendant if the police want to use the answers as evidence against the arrested person in a criminal case. Once an arrested person states a desire to stay silent or speak to a lawyer, questioning must stop.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
In criminal practice. The stopping, seizing, or apprehending a person by lawful authority; the act of laying hands upon a person for the purpose of taking his body into custody of the law ; the restraining of the liberty of a man’s person in order to compel obedience to the order of a court of justice, or to prevent the commission of a crime, or to insure that a person charged or suspected of a crime may be forthcoming to answer it French v. Bancroft, 1 Mete. (Mass.) 502; Emery v. Chesley, 18 N. H. 201; U. S. v. Benner, 24 Fed. Cas. 1084; Rhodes v. Walsh, 55 Minn. 542, 57 N. W. 212, 23 L. R. A. 632; Ex parte Sherwood, 29 Tex. App. 334, 15 S. W. 812. Arrest is well described in the old books as “the beginning of imprisonment, when a man is first taken and restrained of his liberty, by power of a lawful warrant.” 2 Shep. Abr. 299; Wood, Inst Com. Law, 575. In civil practice. The apprehension of a person by virtue of a lawful authority to answer the demand against him in a civil action. In admiralty practice. In admiralty actions a ship or cargo is arrested when the marshal has served the writ In an action in rem. Williams & B. Adm. Jur. 193; Pelham v. Rose, 9 Wall. 103, 19 L. Ed. 602. Synonyms distinguished. The term “apprehension” seems to be more peculiarly appropriate to seizure on criminal process; while “arrest” may apply to either a civil or criminal action, but is perhaps better confined to the former. Montgomery County v. Robinson, 85 111. 176. As ordinarily used, the terms “arrest” and “attachment” coincide in meaning to some extent, though in strictness, as a distinction, an arrest may be said to be the act resulting from the service of an attachment; and, in the more extended sense which is sometimes given to attachment, including the act of taking, it would seem to differ from arrest, in that it is more peculiarly applicable to a taking of property, while arrest is more commonly used in speaking of persons. Bouvier. By arrest is to be understood to take the party into custody. To commxt is the separate and distinct act of carrying the party to prison, after having taken him into custody by force of the execution. French v. Bancroft, 1 Mete. (Mass.) 502. Arrest of inquest. Pleading in arrest of taking the inquest upon a former issue, and showing cause why an inquest should not he taken. Arrest of judgment. In practice. The act of staying a judgment, or refusing to render judgment in an action at law, after verdict, for some matter intrinsic appearing on the face of the record, which would render the judgment, if given, erroneous or reversible. 3 Bl. Comm. 393; 3 Steph. Comm. 628; 2 Tidd, Pr. 918; Browning v. Powers, 142 Mo. 322, 44 S. W. 224; People v. Kelly, 94 N. Y. 526; Byrne v. Lynn, 18 Tex. Civ. App. 252, 44 S. W. 311. Malicious arrest. An arrest made willfully and without probable cause,’ but in the course of a regular proceeding. Parol arrest. One ordered by a judge or magistrate from the bench, without written complaint or other proceedings, of & person who is present before him, and which is executed on the spot; as in case of breach of the peace in open court. Warrant of arrest. A written order issued and signed by a magistrate, directed to a peace officer or some other person specially named, and commanding him to arrest the body of a person named in it, who is accused of an offense. Brown r. State, 109 Ala. 70, 20 South. 103.