Opinion ID: 1166357
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the decision of the magistrate

Text: A. The state argues that the magistrate erred by refusing to allow the prosecutor to reopen the preliminary hearing and call additional witnesses. Neither the statutes nor the Rules of Criminal Procedure set forth rules for calling of witnesses at preliminary hearings or detail the magistrate's authority to decline to hear testimony from additional witnesses who were present or to prevent a prosecutor from reopening his case to allow him to present additional evidence concerning an element of the crime. Accordingly, we must decide the propriety of the magistrate's action according to general principles of criminal law governing proceedings in which parties' substantial rights are not finally determined, but merely preliminarily examined. First, the overriding concern in a criminal prosecution is ... that justice shall be done... . [T]he twofold aim of [the criminal justice system] is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 88, 55 S.Ct. 629, 633, 79 L.Ed. 1314 (1935). In our opinion, the defendant's right to a fair preliminary hearing would not have been compromised had the prosecutor been allowed to reopen the preliminary hearing to call additional witnesses whose testimony would be relevant to the question of whether or not the defendant was intoxicated to such a degree that he could not have been able to form the intent necessary to commit murder. The procedures to be followed in a preliminary hearing are not so formal that if a magistrate has decided that the evidence which the prosecutor thought was adequate to show probable cause was not sufficient to convince the magistrate that there was probable cause the prosecutor has lost or forfeited all right to introduce additional evidence upon that issue even when he has additional witnesses who were present and available to testify and can proceed to introduce additional evidence without delay. On the contrary, in this circumstance where the prosecutor and magistrate differed in their assessment of whether the evidence was sufficient to show probable cause concerning one element of the crime and where the prosecutor had other witnesses available to offer additional evidence concerning that element, the magistrate abused his discretion by refusing to allow the prosecutor to reopen the case.