Opinion ID: 1408538
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Conscious Indifference and Willful Failure of Prosecution

Text: In both of these cases the district courts advert to prosecutorial dereliction in the form of conscious indifference to rules of procedure affecting a defendant's right or in the form of willful failure to comply with such rules. These concepts have no application to the cases now before us. Such prosecutorial conduct is considered only in cases in which an action against a defendant has been properly dismissed at the preliminary examination stage, and the state subsequently reinstates prosecution of the case. For example, in Maes v. Sheriff, 86 Nev. 317, 468 P.2d 332 (1970), the state failed to observe the procedural requirements in seeking a continuance of a preliminary examination, and the complaint was dismissed by the magistrate. The state subsequently filed an identical complaint charging the same offense. This court issued a writ of habeas corpus, holding that a new criminal proceeding was not allowable when the original proceeding had been dismissed due to willful failure of the prosecution to comply with required procedural preconditions. We made a related ruling in State v. Austin, 87 Nev. 81, 482 P.2d 284 (1971). There we upheld the district court's dismissal of a second accusation on the ground that the accused had been denied the constitutional right to a speedy trial in a case in which there had been a conscious indifference to rules of procedure affecting an accused's rights. Since questions relating to the institution of a second criminal charge do not arise in either of the cases now before us, matters of willful failure or conscious indifference relative to procedural rights of an accused are irrelevant here. Such matters were not, therefore, the proper subject of consideration by the district courts. For the reasons stated, the writs of habeas corpus were improperly granted; the writs are therefore quashed with instructions that the prosecutions may proceed in due course. MANOUKIAN, C.J., and MOWBRAY, STEFFEN and GUNDERSON, JJ., concur.