(A) crim. law. A forcible setting at liberty against law of a person duly arrested. The person who rescues the prisoner is called the rescuer. 2. If the rescued prisoner were arrested for felony, then the rescuer is a felon; if for treason, a traitor; and if for a trespass, he is liable to a fine as if he had committed the original offence. Hawk. B. 5, c. 21. If the principal be acquitted, the rescuer may nevertheless be fined for the misdemeanor in the obstruction and contempt of public justice. 1 Hale, 598. 3. 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, 606. 4. In another sense, rescue is the taking away and setting at liberty, against law, a distress taken for rent, or services, or damage feasant. (B) mar. war. 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. . 2. Rescue differs from recapture. The rescuers 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 right of postliminium.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
The act of forcibly and intentionally, delivering a person from lawful arrest or imprisonment, and setting him at liberty. 4 Bl. Comm. 131; Code Ga.