Title 29 — Judicial Procedure, Criminal

An application for a continuance may be made when a criminal action is called for trial, or at any time previous thereto.

An application for a continuance on the ground that a witness is absent must show: 1. That the applicant has used due diligence to prepare for the trial; 2. The nature of the diligence used; 3. The name and residence of the absent witness; 4. What the applicant expects or believe…

An application for a continuance must be in writing unless otherwise ordered by the court. Such application must specify the ground or grounds upon which it is based and must be filed by the state's attorney or counsel for the defendant, as the case may be.

The party applying for a continuance may file affidavits in support of that application and counter affidavits may be received or denied as the court may direct.

Whenever a continuance is granted, the reasons therefor must be entered in the minutes of the court.

When there are several defendants and a continuance is granted on the application of one or more but not of all defendants, the trial of the other defendants must proceed unless the court otherwise directs.

The jurors having been impaneled and sworn, the trial must proceed in the following order: 1. If the information or indictment is for a felony, the clerk or state's attorney shall read it, and shall state the plea of the defendant to the jury. In all other cases this formality ma…

When the state of the pleadings requires it, or in any other case, for good reasons and in the sound discretion of the court, the order of trial and argument prescribed in section 29-21-01 may be departed from.

The court shall decide all questions of law which arise in the course of the trial.

On the trial of an information or indictment for any offense other than libel, questions of law are to be decided by the court, and, although the jurors have the power to find a general verdict, which includes questions of law as well as of fact, they are bound, nevertheless, to …

A defendant in a criminal action is presumed to be innocent until the contrary is proved, and in case of a reasonable doubt as to whether the defendant's guilt is satisfactorily shown, the defendant is entitled to be acquitted.

When it appears that a defendant has committed a public offense and there is reasonable ground to doubt in which of two or more degrees the defendant is guilty, the defendant can be convicted of the lowest of such degrees only.

Whenever two or more persons are jointly charged with any crime, they must be tried jointly, subject to the power of the court, in its discretion and for special reasons, to order separate trials as to one or more of the defendants, and when tried jointly there may be joint or se…

When two or more persons are charged with an offense in the same information or indictment, the court, at any time before the defendants have gone into their defense, on the application of the state's attorney, may direct any defendant to be discharged from the information or ind…

Whenever two or more persons are charged with an offense in the same information or indictment, and the court is of the opinion that in regard to a particular defendant there is not sufficient evidence to put that person on that person's defense, it shall order that person to be …

The discharge of a defendant under either of sections 29-21-08 and 29-21-09 is an acquittal of the offense charged in the information or indictment, or any offense of which that person might have been found guilty thereunder, and is a bar to another prosecution therefor.

In the trial of a criminal action or proceeding before any court or magistrate of this state, whether prosecuted by information, indictment, complaint, or otherwise, the defendant, at the defendant's own request and not otherwise, must be deemed a competent witness, but the defen…

Superseded by N.D.R.Crim.P., Rule 26; N.D.R.Ev., Rule 101. 29-21-12.1. Statements, admissions, or confessions procured by duress, fraud, threat, or promises inadmissible in any criminal action. Repealed by S.L. 1995, ch. 320, § 1.

Upon a trial for forging any bill or note purporting to be the bill or note of an incorporated company or bank, or for passing, or attempting to pass, or having in possession with intent to pass, any such forged bill or note, it is not necessary to prove the incorporation of such…

A conviction cannot be had upon the testimony of an accomplice unless the accomplice is corroborated by such other evidence as tends to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense, and the corroboration is not sufficient if it merely shows the commission of the offen…

When it appears, at any time before verdict or judgment, that a mistake has been made in charging the proper offense, the defendant must not be discharged, if there appears good cause to detain the defendant in custody, but the court shall commit the defendant, or require the def…

Repealed by S.L. 2023, ch. 304, § 1.

If, after a mistake in charging an offense as is provided in section 29-21-15, a new information is not filed nor a new indictment found as is provided in rule 12 of the North Dakota Rules of Criminal Procedure, the court shall proceed again to try the defendant on the original c…

Superseded by N.D.R.Ev., Rule 606.

The court may direct the jury to be discharged, when it appears that it has not jurisdiction of the offense, or that the facts charged in the information or indictment do not constitute an offense punishable by law.

If the jury is discharged because the court has not jurisdiction of the offense charged, and it appears that it was committed out of the jurisdiction of this state, the defendant must be discharged, unless the court orders that the defendant be detained for a reasonable time, to …

If an offense which the court is without jurisdiction to try was committed within the jurisdiction of another county of this state, the court may direct the defendant to be committed for such time as it deems reasonable to await a warrant from the proper county for the defendant'…

In the cases provided for in section 29-21-21, the clerk forthwith shall transmit a certified copy of the information or indictment and of all the papers filed in the action to the proper county, the expense of which transmission is chargeable to that county.

If a defendant is not arrested on a warrant from the proper county: 1. The defendant must be discharged from custody; 2. The defendant's bail in the action must be exonerated; or 3. Money deposited instead of bail must be refunded, as the case may be, and the sureties in the unde…

If a defendant, on a warrant from a proper county, is arrested, the same proceedings must be had thereon as upon the arrest of a defendant in another county, on a warrant of arrest issued by a magistrate.

If a jury is discharged because the facts as charged do not constitute an offense punishable by law, the court shall order that the defendant, if in custody, be discharged therefrom, or, if admitted to bail, that the defendant's bail be exonerated, or if the defendant has deposit…

When, in the opinion of the court, it is proper that the jurors should view the place in which the offense was charged to have been committed, or in which any other material fact occurred, it may order the jurors to be conducted in a body, in the custody of proper officers, to su…

The jurors sworn to try a criminal action, at any time before the cause is submitted to the jurors, in the discretion of the court, may be permitted to separate, or may be kept in charge of proper officers. The officers must be sworn to keep the jurors together until the next mee…

The jurors also, at each adjournment of the court, whether permitted to separate or required to be kept in charge of officers, must be admonished by the court that it is their duty not to converse among themselves nor with anyone else on any subject connected with the trial, nor …

The court, in its discretion, may restrict the argument to the jury in a criminal case to one counsel for the prosecution and one for each defendant.

Superseded by N.D.R.Crim.P., Rule 30.

Superseded by N.D.R.Crim.P., Rule 30.

The reporter of the court shall receive for writing out the oral instructions of the court the same fees as for making transcripts.

Superseded by N.D.R.Crim.P., Rules 30, 51.

Superseded by N.D.R.Crim.P., Rule 46.

Superseded by N.D.R.Crim.P., Rule 24.

If the state's attorney fails or is unable to attend at the trial, the court may appoint some attorney at law to perform the duties of the state's attorney on such trial.

Superseded by N.D.R.Crim.P., Rule 29.

No pleading can be used in a criminal prosecution against the party as proof of a fact admitted or alleged in such pleading.

After hearing the charge, the jurors shall retire for deliberation to a room which must be provided for them by the board of county commissioners. Such room must be supplied with heat, light, and other conveniences. If a room is not provided by such board, the court may order the…

The jurors shall retire in charge of one or more officers who must be sworn to keep them together in some private and convenient place until they have rendered their verdict. Such officer or officers shall furnish food and other necessaries to the jurors, at the expense of the st…

The court shall appoint one of the jurors foreman or instruct the jurors to select one of their number as foreman.

Upon retiring for deliberation, the jurors may take with them: 1. All papers or things other than depositions which have been received as evidence in the cause, but if, in the opinion of the court, a public record or private document received in evidence should not be taken from …

Superseded by N.D.R.Crim.P., Rule 43.

The court may recall the jurors after they have retired to consider their verdict to give them additional instructions or to correct any erroneous instructions it has given them. Such additional or corrective instructions may be given only after notice to the state's attorney and…