Title 29, Judicial Procedure, Criminal

Every public offense must be prosecuted by information or indictment unless it is one in which: 1. A proceeding is had for the removal of a civil officer of the state or an officer of some political subdivision thereof; 2. There is a breach of military discipline arising in the m…

The proceeding by which a party charged with a public offense is accused and brought to trial and punishment is known as a criminal action.

A criminal action is prosecuted in the name of the state of North Dakota as a party against the party charged with the offense.

It is not necessary to entitle an affidavit or deposition in an action whether taken before or after information or indictment or upon an appeal, but if made without a title or with an erroneous title, it is as valid and effectual for every purpose as if it were duly entitled, if…

The party prosecuted in a criminal action is designated in this code as the accused or as the defendant.

In all criminal prosecutions the party accused has the right: 1. To appear and defend in person and with counsel; 2. To demand and be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; 3. To meet the witnesses against the party face to face; 4. To have the process of the court t…

When the defendant is charged with a crime under a multiple count indictment or information as allowed by the North Dakota Rules of Criminal Procedure, the defendant may be tried on all counts in any one of the counties in which one of the offenses was committed.

Whenever a person charged with a felony is not arrested but is summoned to appear in court, that person shall submit to the sheriff for identification procedures at the time of the first court appearance.

No person can be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense, nor can any person be subjected to a second prosecution for a public offense for which that person has once been prosecuted and convicted, or acquitted, or put in jeopardy, except as is provided by law for new trials.

No person charged with a public offense can be subjected before conviction to any more restraint than is necessary for the person's detention to answer the charge.

No person can be convicted of a crime or public offense except: 1. By the verdict of a jury accepted and recorded by the court; 2. Upon a plea of guilty; 3. Upon a judgment against that person, that person's motion to quash having been denied; 4. Upon a judgment of a municipal co…

Each district court may be held, for the trial of a criminal action, in an organized county.

The final decision of the district court in a criminal action is reviewable and determinable by the supreme court according to law on an appeal bringing up for review the record and proceedings therein.

As used in this title, unless the context or subject matter otherwise clearly requires: 1. Superseded by N.D.R.Crim.P., Rule 3. 2. An "indictment" is an accusation in writing presented by a grand jury to a competent court charging a person with a crime or public offense. 3. A "pr…

The following officers are magistrates: 1. The judges of the supreme court, with authority to act as such throughout the state. 2. The judges of the district courts, with authority to act as such throughout the judicial districts for which they respectively are elected. 3. As lim…

1. Any municipal judge may: a. Act as committing magistrate; provided, that this subsection does not apply to municipal judges who are not attorneys currently licensed under chapter 27-11. b. Hear, try, and determine misdemeanors and infractions when jurisdiction has been conferr…

When a defendant is held to answer on a charge constituting a misdemeanor or infraction, for which a person injured by the act constituting the offense has a remedy by a civil action, the offense may be compromised as provided in section 29-01-17, except: 1. If the offense was co…

If a party injured appears before the court in which a trial for the commission of a public offense is to be had, at any time before the trial, and acknowledges that the party injured has received satisfaction for the injury, the court, on payment of the costs incurred, may order…

The order authorized by section 29-01-17 is a bar to another prosecution for the same offense.

A public offense may not be compromised, nor may any proceeding for the prosecution or punishment of a public offense, upon a compromise, be stayed except as is provided in sections 29-01-16 and 29-01-17.

1. Except as provided in subsection 2, whenever property alleged to have been stolen or embezzled comes into the custody of a peace officer, the peace officer shall hold it subject to the order of the magistrate authorized by section 29-01-21 to direct the disposal thereof. 2. Su…

On satisfactory proof of the title of the owner of the property, the magistrate before whom the complaint is laid, or who examines the charge against the person accused of stealing or embezzling the property, may order it to be delivered to the owner on the owner's paying the rea…

If property stolen or embezzled comes into the custody of a magistrate, it must be delivered to the owner on satisfactory proof of the owner's title and on the owner's paying the necessary expenses incurred in its preservation, to be certified by the magistrate.

If property stolen or embezzled has not been delivered to the owner, the court before which a trial is had for stealing or embezzling it, on proof of the owner's title, may order it to be restored to the owner.

If the property stolen or embezzled is not claimed by the owner within six months from the conviction of a person for stealing or embezzling it, the magistrate or officer having it in custody, on the payment of the necessary expenses incurred in its preservation, shall deliver it…

When money or other property is taken from a defendant arrested upon a charge of a public offense, the officer taking it at the time shall give duplicate receipts therefor, specifying particularly the amount of the money, or the kind of property taken, one of which receipts the o…

The clerk, magistrate, or other person to whom property is delivered, as provided in section 29-01-25, shall record every amount of money and a description of every article of property taken from each person arrested, attach a number to every amount of money and every article of …

The rule of the common law that penal statutes are to be strictly construed has no application to this title. This title establishes the law of this state respecting the subjects to which it relates, and its provisions and all proceedings under it are to be liberally construed wi…

Lawful resistance to the commission of a public offense may be made: 1. By the party about to be injured; or 2. By other parties.

Resistance sufficient to prevent a public offense may be made by a party about to be injured: 1. To prevent an offense against the party's person or the party's family or some member thereof; or 2. To prevent an illegal attempt by force to take or injure property in the party's l…

Any person, in aid or defense of a person about to be injured by a public offense, may make resistance sufficient to prevent the offense.

Public offenses may be prevented by the intervention of officers of justice: 1. By requiring security to keep the peace; 2. By providing police in cities and by requiring their attendance in exposed places; and 3. By suppressing riots.

Whenever officers of justice are authorized to act in the prevention of public offenses, other persons who by their command act in their aid are justified in so doing.

A complaint may be laid before any magistrate mentioned in section 29-01-14, authorized by law to act within the county, that a person has threatened to commit an offense against the person or property of another.

A complaint within the meaning of section 29-02-06 is a statement in writing, made to a magistrate, that a person has threatened to commit an offense against the person or property of another, and subscribed and sworn to by the complainant.

If it appears from a complaint to a magistrate that there is just reason to fear the commission of an offense threatened by the person complained of, the magistrate shall issue a warrant directed generally to the sheriff of the county, marshal, or policeman of the city, reciting …

If a person complained of is brought before a magistrate upon the charge that that person threatened to commit an offense against another, the magistrate, if the charge is controverted, shall take testimony in relation thereto. The evidence on demand of the defendant must be redu…

If it appears that there is no just reason to fear the commission of an offense alleged to have been threatened, the person complained of must be discharged.

If there is just reason to fear the commission of an offense, the person complained of may be required to enter into an undertaking in such sum, not exceeding one thousand dollars, as the magistrate may direct, with one or more sufficient sureties to abide the order of the next d…

If an undertaking to keep the peace as required by section 29-02-11 is given, the party complained of must be discharged. If the party does not give it, the magistrate shall commit the person to prison specifying in the warrant the requirement to give security, the amount thereof…

If a person complained of for threatening to commit an offense against the person or property of another is committed for not giving security, that person, upon giving the same, may be discharged by any municipal judge who is authorized to act as a committing magistrate, or by th…

A person who in the presence of a court or magistrate assaults or threatens to assault another, or to commit an offense against another's person or property, or who contends with another with angry words, may be ordered by the court or magistrate to give security, as is provided …

A person who has entered into an undertaking to keep the peace shall appear on the first day of the next term of the district court of the county. If that person does not, the court may forfeit that person's undertaking and order it to be prosecuted unless that person's default i…

If the one who complained of a person who has entered into an undertaking to keep the peace does not appear on the first day of the next term of the district court of the county, the person complained of may be discharged unless good cause to the contrary is shown.

If the complainant and accused both appear, as is required by sections 29-02-15 and 29-02-16, the court may hear their proofs and allegations, and may discharge the undertaking or require a new one for a time not exceeding one year.

An undertaking to keep the peace is broken on the failure of a person complained of to appear at the district court as provided in section 29-02-15 or upon that person's being convicted of a breach of the peace.

If the state's attorney produces to the district court to which an undertaking to keep the peace is returned, evidence that the principal has been convicted of a breach of the peace, that court shall order the undertaking to be prosecuted and the state's attorney thereupon shall …

In an action prosecuted for breach of an undertaking to keep the peace, the offense stated in the record of conviction must be alleged as the breach of the undertaking, and such record is conclusive evidence thereof.

Security to keep the peace or to be of good behavior cannot be required except as is prescribed in this chapter.

In all cases in which security is furnished under the provisions of this chapter to keep the peace, the court, in addition to the orders mentioned in this chapter, shall tax the costs against the complainant or defendant, or both, as justice may require, and shall enter judgment …