201.160 - Bigamy: Definition; penalty. - Nevada Statutes

201.160  Bigamy: Definition; penalty.

      1.  Bigamy consists in the having of two wives or two husbands at one time, knowing that the former husband or wife is still alive.

      2.  If a married person marries any other person while the former husband or wife is alive, the person so offending is guilty of a category D felony and shall be punished as provided in NRS 193.130.

      3.  It is not necessary to prove either of the marriages by the register and certificate thereof, or other record evidence, but those marriages may be proved by such evidence as is admissible to prove a marriage in other cases, and when the second marriage has taken place without this State, cohabitation in this State after the second marriage constitutes the commission of the crime of bigamy.

      4.  This section does not extend:

      (a) To a person whose husband or wife has been continually absent from that person for the space of 5 years before the second marriage, if he or she did not know the husband or wife to be living within that time.

      (b) To a person who is, at the time of the second marriage, divorced by lawful authority from the bonds of the former marriage, or to a person where the former marriage has been by lawful authority declared void.

      [1911 C&P § 191; RL § 6456; NCL § 10138]—(NRS A 1967, 475; 1979, 1428; 1995, 1197)