 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Mogard v. City of Laramie9/24/2001
is the language found in the Sixth Amendment. In this instance, at least, Wyo. Const. art. 1, § 10 was pointedly drafted to mirror the words and intent of the Sixth Amendment.
[ ] In truth, there is little that constitutional history can do to help answer the question before us:
No state constitutional history exists which would lead us to believe that Wyoming initially included individual rights as a strong statement of societal values or because it intended to provide greater protection of individual rights. The most that can be definitely ascertained from the differences in the constitutional histories of the two documents may well be explained by the simple fact that it was the prevailing view that protection of individual rights was considered to be the province of the state and the federal rights acted only upon the federal government, and the Wyoming drafters acted accordingly. Vasquez, 990 P.2d at 484 (citing State v. Peterson, 27 Wyo. 185, 213, 194 P. 342, 350 (1920)).
The Bill of Rights has its roots in the years of conflict between Britain and the colonies, and in the hundreds of years of development of Anglo-American law. The parties have not brought to our attention any events or circumstances in Wyoming in the latter half of the nineteenth century from which we may infer an intent that the protections contained in Wyo. Const. art. 1, § 10 were meant to be more broad than their counterparts in the Sixth Amendment.
PRE-EXISTING STATE LAW
[ ] The six factors identified in Saldana were taken from State v. Gunwall, 106 Wash.2d 54, 720 P.2d 808, 811 (1986). Saldana, 846 P.2d at 622 (Golden, J., concurring). The Gunwall court gave the following justification for looking to pre-existing state law to help determine the relative breadth of state constitutional protections:
Previously established bodies of state law, including statutory law, may also bear on the granting of distinctive state constitutional rights. State law may be responsive to concerns of its citizens long before they are addressed by analogous constitutional claims. Pre-existing law can thus help to define the scope of a constitutional right later established. Gunwall, 720 P.2d at 812.
[ ] The appellant's investigation into Wyoming's pre-constitutional law focuses upon portions of the territorial criminal code in effect just prior to statehood. He cites numerous statutes in outlining the complaint and warrant, indictment, arrest, preliminary hearing, and arraignment procedures established in that code. Unfortunately, there is little in the appellant's analysis, or in the Revised Statutes of Wyoming of 1887 for that matter, that does much to aid us in comparing the Sixth Amendment to Wyo. Const. art. 1, § 10. In fact, the almost complete lack of any mention of a defendant's right to counsel in the 1887 code may be the most revealing aspect of this analysis. No statement of, or recognition of, any exceptional right to an attorney can be found. The only references to the defendant's attorney occur in Wyo. Rev. Stat. ch. 8, §§ 3258 and 3259 (1887), which deal with the service of a grand jury indictment upon a defendant or his attorney, and the bringing of the defendant into court, where an attorney will be appointed for him if he is indigent. Since the succeeding sections detail the formal responses to the indictment available to the defendant--motion to quash, plea in abatement, demurrer, and plea on the merits--it seems clear that the statutory intent is to allow the defendant to have the advice of counsel in making these "plea" decisions. Wyo. Rev. Stat. ch. 8, §§ 3260-3275 (1887). See James v. State, 27 Wyo. 378, 196 P. 1045, 1046 (1921). There is nothing
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Wyoming DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|