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NRS 51.055

“Unavailable as a witness” defined

Applied in 18 court decisions — leading case Chavez v. State (2009)

Most recently applied in Clark (Walter) Vs. State (June 2021)

(Added to NRS by 1971, 794)

How often courts cite this section

19721980199020002010202120
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

1. A declarant is “unavailable as a witness” if the declarant is:

(a) Exempted by ruling of the judge on the ground of privilege from testifying concerning the subject matter of the declarant’s statement;

(b) Persistent in refusing to testify despite an order of the judge to do so;

(c) Unable to be present or to testify at the hearing because of death or then existing physical or mental illness or infirmity; or

(d) Absent from the hearing and beyond the jurisdiction of the court to compel appearance and the proponent of the declarant’s statement has exercised reasonable diligence but has been unable to procure the declarant’s attendance or to take the declarant’s deposition.

2. A declarant is not “unavailable as a witness” if the declarant’s exemption, refusal, inability or absence is due to the procurement or wrongdoing of the proponent of the declarant’s statement for the purpose of preventing the witness from attending or testifying.

Official source: Nevada Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Nevada statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.