Nolle prosequi

“ The Mechanics' Bank of Alexandria, 1 Pet., 46, the court held, that when the defendants sever in the pleadings, a nolle prosequi ought to be allowed against one defendant,' that 'it is a practice which violates no rules of pleading, and will generally subserve the public convenience. ”

“ Under North Carolina criminal procedure, when the prosecuting attorney of a county, denominated the solicitor, determines that he does not desire to proceed further with a prosecution, he may take a nolle prosequi, thereby declaring 'that he will not, at that time, prosecute the suit further. Its effect is to put the defendant without day, that is, he is discharged and permitted to go whithersoever he will, without entering into a recognizance to appear at any other time.' Wilkinson v. ”

“ At the common law, and in the absence of special statutes of limitations, the mere failure to find an indictment will not operate to discharge the accused from the offense, nor will a nolle prosequi entered by the government, or the failure of the grand jury to indict. It is doubtless true that in some cases the power of the government has been abused, and charges have been kept hanging over the heads of citizens, and they have been committed for unreasonable periods, resulting in hardship. ”

“ If there is nothing before the court which the prisoner, in the language of the constitution, can be 'held to answer,' he is then entitled to be discharged so far as the offense originally presented to the court by the indictment is concerned. The power of the court to proceed to try the prisoner is as much arrested as if the indictment had been dismissed or a nolle prosequi had been entered. ”

“ The company's counsel submitted Putney's overtures, as he expected, to the State's attorney, in the hypothetical form, and the State's attorney, as Putney expected, dealt with the actuality. He said that when Northwick's friends communicated with him and ascertained his readiness to surrender the money he had with him, and to make restitution in every possible way, it would be time to talk of a nolle prosequi. In the meantime, by the fact of absconding he was in contempt of court. He must return and submit himself for trial, and take the chance of a merciful sentence. ”

“ Public prosecutions, until they come before the court to which they are returnable, are within the exclusive direction of the district attorney, and even after they are entered in court, they are so far under his control that he may enter a nolle prosequi at any time before the jury is empanelled for the trial of the case, except in cases where it is otherwise provided in some act of Congress. ”

“ On appeal to the Supreme Court of North Carolina, petitioner contended that the entry of the nolle prosequi with leave order deprived him of his right to a speedy trial as required by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Although the Supreme Court acknowledged that entry of the nolle prosequi with leave did not permanently discharge the indictment, it nevertheless affirmed. Its opinion concludes:
'Without question a defendant has the right to a speedy trial, if there is to be a trial. ”

“ Rockland had made the necessary arrangements with the attorney-general, who was quite a young man, but possessed a high order of intellect. He was a good lawyer, but differed from other prosecuting attorneys in one respect. Nearly all State attorneys imagine that it is their duty to prosecute with a vengeance every unfortunate creature against whom a bill may be found. But attorney-general Quillet was ever ready to enter a nolle prosequi when the proof justified it. I was overwhelmed with astonishment one morning to see Harry Wallingford come walking into my office, looking like a corpse. ”

“ There is a misjoinder of parties. But this objection is taken here, for the first time; and the difficulty may be obviated by a nolle prosequi in the district court, which is allowable under the decisions of this court. ”

“ He will have to be tried for that, and these things are uncertain, my lady."
"If such evidence is laid before Lord Woodhall as to make him see clearly that the young gentleman is innocent, and he desires to desist from the prosecution, and even joins in our application for pardon in this other case, and if the same evidence convinces the attorney general that there is really no case to go to the jury, is there no means--"
"Oh yes," replied Jeffries, "Mr. Attorney can enter a nolle prosequi at any stage of the proceedings; but do you think that the old lord will really sue for his pardon? ”

“ It is laid down by Chitty in his Treatise on Pleading, that a plea which is bad in part is bad in toto. If therefore two defendants join in a plea, which is sufficient for one but not for the other, the plea is bad as to both. For the court cannot sever it, and say that one is guilty, and that the other is not, when they put themselves on the same terms. Chitty, 598. A plaintiff may in an action in form ex delicto against several defendants, enter a nolle prosequi as to one of them. ”

“ Justice Holroyd appeared on the bench, and an intimation was conveyed to his Lordship that there was no probability that the jury would agree.
A conference took place between the counsel for the prosecution and defence who appeared to be both willing to enter a Noli Prosequi and discharge the jury without a verdict.
A gentleman in black (said to be Mr. Longueville Clarke, one of the Committee of the Constitutional p. 139Association, and one of the State Locusts) suddenly started up, and declared that he would not consent to such a course. ”

“ The dire statistics of this time tell us, that fifty-five escaped death by confessing themselves guilty, one hundred and fifty were in prison, more than two hundred accused, and upwards of twenty suffered death, among whom was the minister I have called Nolan, who was traditionally esteemed to have suffered through hatred of his co-pastor. One old man, scorning the accusation, and refusing to plead at his trial, was, according to the law, pressed to death for his contumacy. ”

“ Often, day and night, had Prosper repeated these words, as he walked his cell. With a heart filled with a bitter, determined thirst for vengeance, which gives a man the force and patience to destroy or wear out all obstacles in his way, he would say, “Oh! why am I not at liberty? I am helpless, caged up; but let me once be free!”
Now he was free; and, for the first time, he saw the difficulties of the task before him. For each crime, justice requires a criminal: he could not establish his own innocence without producing the guilty man; how find the thief so as to hand him over to the law? ”

“ I've been solicitor in this county for going on nineteen years. Chances are I'll be here nineteen more. In all that time I've never knowingly prosecuted a man who didn't deserve to be prosecuted. I may have been wrong sometimes—everybody is. But I've tried mighty hard to be fair and merciful. And I've learned to recognize truth.
“As to your story, son—I believe it. I believe every word of it. And somehow I couldn't bring myself to ask the Grand Jury to indict you for killing Morgan. ”

“ Then he cleared his throat and started. "This Terran riffraff—"
"The oath," muttered the judge. "We've got to have the oath."
The prosecutor nodded, and four natives moved forward, carrying huge inscribed marble slabs to the front of the court. One by one the chunks were reverently piled in a heap at the witness's feet. The witness placed a huge, hairy paw on the cairn, and the prosecutor said, "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you—" he paused to squint at the paper in his hand, and finished on a puzzled note, "—Goddess?" ”

“ Technically it is so, of course; but who is the real prosecutor? Who has been the moving spirit all along—if not [Pg 137] the prosecutor, then the persecutor? Who has lost, or professes to have lost, his wretched jewels? Who, the moment he heard that the crime was discovered, turned round and hurled his brutal accusation at this helpless girl? Who rushed off to lodge his information, so as to be beforehand in case any information were to be lodged against him? Who instructed the solicitors at the inquest? Who gave evidence there and at the police-court? ”

“ Conduct by a prosecutor that
does not render a criminal trial fundamentally unfair is prosecutorial misconduct under
state law only if it involves “ ‘ “the use of deceptive or reprehensible methods to attempt
to persuade either the court or the jury.” ’ ” (People v. Espinoza, at p. 820.) “Included
within the deceptive or reprehensible methods . . . held to constitute prosecutorial
misconduct are personal attacks on the integrity of opposing counsel.” (People v. Gionis,
at p. 1215; see also People v. Sandoval (1992) ”

“ Vadier [to Fouquier-Tinville] . Prosecutor, carry out the decree.
Fouquier-Tinville. The unheard-of indecency which the prisoners choose to employ as weapons of defense, the threats which they are so impudent as to hurl at the Tribunal, must put an end to the session. They force us to deal in like fashion under the grave circumstances. I am therefore forced to ask that the questions be asked and judgment passed in the absence of the prisoners.
Judge. The court will deliberate. Take out the prisoners. [Danton does not seem to have understood. He chokes, roaring like an animal.] ”

“ What, is it possible to lie so in a court of justice, in the presence of the black crucifix, the judges, the listeners? And the prosecutor does not interrupt him in his infamous speech? The earth which holds the murdered man, now slandered in his very grave, does not open and swallow the shameless liar?
The gardener, who perceived what was passing in her mind, laid his hand upon her arm and whispered into her ear: "For heaven's sake, Panna, keep quiet, control yourself, or if you cannot, go out of the room." ”

“ Even magistracy itself seldom looks half so glum upon a predatory marauder of this order as he does upon a night robber, a housebreaker, or a highwayman. Whenever the prosecution is brought up to the point of conviction, the prosecutor always leans to the side of mercy; and the capital is "taken off:" one never hears of a pickpocket being hung. ”

“ The counsel for the prosecution in both cases is identical. He stands before you framing yet another of those objections with which he has endeavored to impede the cause of humanity. I point my finger at him, and challenge him to deny the truth of the statement I am making. And by a perfectly logical and natural extension of this coincidence, the judge who sent the butler to his doom is seated above you now in all the panoply of his office. I leave him now if he is able to deal in a like manner with this poor Magdalene, who may or may not have fallen by the way. ”

“ To the malicious part of this charge, which is the condemnation of Nundcomar for a forgery, I do declare, in the most solemn and unreserved manner, that I had no concern, either directly or indirectly, in the apprehending, prosecuting, or executing of Nundcomar. He suffered for a crime of forgery which he had committed in a private trust that was delegated to him, and for which he had been prosecuted in the dewanny courts of the country before the institution of the Supreme Court of Judicature. ”

“ But some others think that the divinatio is so called because, while prosecutor and defendant are two things that are, as it were, related and connected, so that neither can exist without the other, yet in this form of trial, while there is already a defendant, there is as yet no prosecutor, and therefore the factor which is still lacking and unknown — namely, what man is to be the prosecutor — must be supplied by divination. ”

“ In any event, it is by no means clear that petitioner must show that the prosecutor's knowing acquiescence in a material falsehood prejudiced him. There is no place in our system of criminal justice for prosecutorial misconduct. ”

“ Silence was soon obtained, and the counsel concluded his speech thus: "It is an old experience of the court that the chain of evidence which seems strongest, and in which the links seem to fit exactly into each other, is in reality most often the weakest. I will ask the jury to bear this in mind. And I believe that I have at least shown you that in the chain of the public prosecutor which seemed to fit so beautifully there is not one link which can be called faultless." ”

“ Therefore the mere fact that a prosecution is preferred against me for that act, and for those words, is the expression of an opinion on my part that this country does not at present enjoy real constitutional institutions, guaranteeing a free trial—guaranteeing that the man accused shall be really put upon his country. Therefore it is absurd to think that any twelve honest men, my neighbours, put upon their oaths, would declare that to be a crime which it is probable that, at least, four-fifths of them believe to be right—right both constitutionally and morally. ”

“ To prosecute him for forgery would mean that it would all come out—how your son gambled, and got in debt, and forged your name to pay his debts, and how, because he didn’t pay all his debts, he forced another man into forgery. And because I refused to prosecute, you are going to have me tried for malfeasance, you say, and sent to prison, and are going to ruin my career. I’m ready to go either direction now. What do you say, Harms? Shall I prosecute, or not? To prosecute means that there will be two prosecuted; to grant immunity means that we fight our fight with other weapons than this affair. ”