Opinion
No. 71971
01-12-2017
DOUGLAS HARRY WARENBACK, Petitioner, v. THE STATE OF NEVADA, Respondent.
cc: Douglas Harry Warenback Attorney General/Carson City
ORDER DENYING PETITION
This original petition for a writ of certiorari seeks this court's resolution of a purported conflict between our decision in Nollette v. State, 118 Nev. 341, 46 P.3d 87 (2002) (holding that sex offender registration is a collateral consequence of a guilty plea and therefore district court's failure to advise defendant of that consequence does not invalidate a guilty plea), and the United States Supreme Court's decision in Carafas v. LaVallee, 391 U.S. 234, 237-39 (1968) (holding that federal jurisdiction over habeas petition filed by state inmate is not defeated when petitioner subsequently expires his sentence because collateral consequences that flow from the conviction, such as voting restrictions, afford the petitioner "a substantial stake in the judgment of conviction which survives the satisfaction of the sentence imposed on him" (internal quotation marks omitted)). Petitioner essentially seeks this court's advisory opinion on an abstract legal question. Because "[t]his court will not render advisory opinions on . . . abstract questions," Applebaum v. Applebaum, 97 Nev. 11, 12, 621 P.2d 1110, 1110 (1981), and a writ of certiorari is not available for that purpose, see NRS 34.020(2), (3) (indicating the writ of certiorari may be granted when a lower court has exceeded its jurisdiction and no appeal is available or when a district court passes upon the constitutionality of a statue or municipal ordinance in an appeal taken from a justice or municipal court), we decline to consider the petition. We therefore
ORDER the petition DENIED.
/s/_________, J.
Douglas /s/_________, J.
Gibbons /s/_________, J.
Pickering cc: Douglas Harry Warenback
Attorney General/Carson City