(A) Latin words for we shall no longer prosecute. A prosecutor in a criminal case will enter a statement into the record that the government will no longer pursue the matter, made after charges are brought but before a verdict is returned or a plea entered. This is usually done when the prosecutor has realized that the case against the defendant has deteriorated. Typically this will require the permission of the judge. (See Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48a.) (B) practice. An entry made on the record, by which the prosecutor or plaintiff declares that he will proceed no further. 2. A nolle prosequi may be entered either in a criminal or a civil case. In criminal cases, a nolle prosequi may be entered at any time before the finding of the grand jury, by the attorney general, and generally after a true bill has been found; in Pennsylvania, in consequence of a statutory provision, no nolle prosequi can be entered after a bill has been found, without leave of the court, except in cases of assault and battery, fornication and bastardy, on agreement between the parties, or in prosecutions for keeping tippling houses. Act of April 29, 1819, s. 4, 7 Smith’s Laws, 227. 3. A nolle prosequi may be entered as to one to several defendants. 11 East, R. 307. 4. The effect of a nolle prosequi, when obtained, is to put the defendant without day, but it does not operate as an acquittal; for he may be afterwards reindicted, and even upon the same indictment, fresh process may be awarded. 5. In civil cases, a nolle prosequi is considered, not to be of the nature of a retraxit or release, as was formerly supposed, but an agreement only, not to proceed either against some of the defendants, or as to part of the suit. Vide 1 Saund. 207, note 2, and the authorities there cited. 1 Chit. PI. 546. A nolle prosequi is now held to be no bar to a future action for the same cause, except in those cases where, from the nature of the action, judgment and execution against one, is a satisfaction of all the damages sustained by the plaintiff. 6. In civil cases, a nolle prosequi may be entered as to one of several counts; 7 Wend. 301; or to one of several defendants; 1 Pet. R. 80; as in the case of a joint contract, where one of two defendants pleads infancy, the plaintiff may enter a nolle prosequi, as to him, and proceed against the other.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
Latin: In practice. A formal entry upon the record, by the plaintiff in a civil suit or the prosecuting officer in a criminal action, by which he declares that he “will no further prosecute” the case, either as to some of the counts, or some of the defendants, or altogether. State v. Primm, 61 Mo. 171; Com. v. Casey, 12 Allen (Mass.) 214; Davenport v. Newton, 71 Vt 11, 42 Ati. 1087. A nolle prosequi is in the nature of an acknowledgment or undertaking by the plaintiff in an action to forbear to proceed any further either in the action altogether, or as to some part of it, or as to some of the defendants; and is different from a non pros., by which the plaintiff is put out of court with respect to all the defendants. Brown.