Selected Statutes: Northern Mariana Islands

The definitions in this and the following section apply throughout this title, unless otherwise specified or a different meaning is plainly required:

(a) [Reserved.]

(b) “Carry” means having on one’s person or in a motor vehicle or other conveyance.

(c) “Commonwealth” means the political entity established by the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands In Political Union With the United States of America, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and any agency or political subdivision thereof created by the Constitution or Commonwealth law, and any area, thing, or place subject to its jurisdiction.

(d) “Commonwealth law” means the Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas and any law enacted pursuant to legislative authority created by the Constitution, as well as rules and regulations having the force and effect of law pursuant to statute.

(e) “Dangerous device” means any explosive, incendiary or poison gas bomb, grenade, mine or similar device, switch or gravity blade knife, blackjack, sandbag, metal, wooden or shark’s tooth knuckles, dagger, any instrument designed or re-designed for use as a weapon, or any other instrument which can be used for the purpose of inflicting bodily harm and which under the circumstances of its possession serves no lawful purpose.

(f) “Dangerous weapon” means

(1) any automatic weapon, dangerous device, firearm, gun, handgun, long gun, semiautomatic weapon, knife, machete, spear gun, shank, shiv; or

(2) anything manifestly designed, made, or adapted for the purpose of inflicting death or serious bodily injury; or

(3) anything that in the manner of its use or intended use is capable of causing death or serious bodily injury, regardless whether death or serious bodily injury actually occurred.

(g) “Defendant” includes a person who is an accessory or accomplice of the defendant in a criminal case.

(h) “Deprive” means:

(1) To withhold property of another permanently or for so extended a period as to appropriate a major portion of its economic value, or with intent to restore only upon payment of reward or other compensation; or

(2) To dispose of the property so as to make it unlikely that the owner will recover it.

(i) “Felony” means any offense or conduct proscribed by Commonwealth law which is punishable by more than one year confinement in a jail or prison.

(j) “Financial institution” means a bank, insurance company, credit union, building and loan association, investment trust or other organization held out to the public as a place of deposit of funds or medium of savings or collective investment.

(k) [Reserved.]

(l) [Reserved.]

(m) [Reserved.]

(n) “Intoxication” means a diminishment or a disturbance of mental or physical capabilities resulting from the introduction of a chemical, alcoholic, organic or other substance into the body.

(o) “Jurisdiction” means the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which includes such area of the land and water and the airspace above those areas with respect to which the Commonwealth government has established its legislative and territorial jurisdiction, and includes boats, aircraft and other vessels while in those areas.

(p) “Knowingly” and “knows” means with knowledge, consciously, intelligently, willfully; a person acts knowingly with respect to a material element of an offense when:

(1) If the element involves the nature of the person’s conduct or the attendant circumstances, he or she is aware that the conduct is of that nature or that such circumstances exist; or

(2) If the element involves a result of the person’s conduct, he or she is aware that it is practically certain that the conduct will cause such a result; or

(3) If the element involves the truth or falsity of a statement or representation, the person is aware of its truth or falsity.

(q) [Reserved.]

(r) “Minor” means a natural person who is under the age of 18 years, and includes the term “a child under the age of 18.”

(s) “Misdemeanor” means any offense or conduct proscribed by Common-wealth law which is punishable by not more than one year confinement in a jail or prison.

(t) “Movable property” means property, the location of which can be changed, including things growing on, affixed to, or found in land, and documents, although the rights represented thereby have no physical location. “Immovable property” is all other property.