Opinion ID: 2633362
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Conviction Exceeds Legislative Intent

Text: [¶ 27] Schmidt contends that his prosecution exceeds the intent we may ascribe to the legislature with respect to the reach of the indecent liberties statute. In addressing this argument, it is contended that the simple exposure of an adult's intimate parts to a child should not be included within its reach. Such simple exposure may well be within its reach but we are dealing here with considerably more than simple exposure. This is an issue that we have visited frequently over the years, and it is one we will discuss further in Schmidt's constitutional challenges to the indecent liberties statute. We have opined in a related circumstance that it is not necessary that the child's private parts be subjected to the misconduct, and some acts, which may not be indecent in themselves, may be made so by words and circumstances. Roberts v. State, 912 P.2d 1110, 1112 (Wyo. 1996). We now specifically adopt that axiom to apply in the circumstances of this case, as well as other similar cases that may come our way. Before we move forward to other issues, we note that the indecent liberties statute has been a part of Wyoming law for almost 45 years. 1957 Wyo. Sess. Laws ch. 220, § 8. Regrettably, we have had far too many opportunities to construe the reach of that statute, and we have uniformly given it broad application. The circumstances proven at trial are unmistakably a violation of that statute, and any person of ordinary intelligence, including Schmidt, is capable of recognizing it as such.