Opinion ID: 1384669
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Wyoming Constitution and Statutes

Text: For its day in 1890, the Wyoming Constitution reflected the modern attitude: The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate in criminal cases, but a jury in civil cases in all courts or in criminal cases in courts not of record, may consist of less than twelve men, as may be prescribed by law. Hereafter a grand jury may consist of twelve men, any nine of whom concurring may find an indictment, but the legislature may change, regulate or abolish the grand jury system. Article 1, § 9. Although grand jury provisions have existed from territorial days, Ch. XIV, Title VI, Compiled Laws of Wyoming 1876, the first state legislature was progressive in providing in Ch. 59, S.L. of Wyoming 1890-91, for the alternative information and preliminary hearing as a most efficient process. The 1890-91 statute, which remained in effect for these proceedings, has now been completely rewritten by Ch. 157, S.L. of Wyoming 1987, effective May 22, 1987 (now § 7-5-101, et seq., W.S. 1977, 1987 Replacement). Substantive provisions historically provided in § 7-5-101, et seq., W.S. 1977, in addition to specifications for calling by the district judge, arrangement for compensation and qualification, and oath to be taken, included provision for a report and other significant requirements of a circa 1890 nature. [5] Wyoming cases construing either the constitutional or statutory provisions from territorial days to 1985, total five: In re Wright, 3 Wyo. 478, 27 P. 565 (1891); Cook v. Territory, 3 Wyo. 110, 4 P. 887 (1884); and In re Boulter, 5 Wyo. 329, 40 P. 520 (1895), predating statehood; and from that date not to reappear for appellate consideration until the unusual circumstances of the Hopkinson cases in 1983, Hopkinson v. State, Wyo., 632 P.2d 79 (1981), cert. denied 455 U.S. 922, 102 S.Ct. 1280, 71 L.Ed.2d 463 (1982), except for State v. Boyd, Wyo., 528 P.2d 287 (1974), cert. denied 423 U.S. 871, 96 S.Ct. 137, 46 L.Ed.2d 102 (1975), which gave minimal consideration to grand jury issues although involving indictment. The minimal state-process involvement of the grand jury in the interim 90 years was occasioned by the more efficient, additionally protective, and far less expensive information-charging process. In the 1884 Cook case, a challenge to the indictment was inappropriately raised by a motion to quash which reached only errors apparent on the face of the record rather than the appropriate plea in abatement. The next two cases, In re Wright, supra, and In re Boulter, supra, determined that the information process with preliminary hearing was correct. Hopkinson and Boyd raised no questions material here, and consequently we undertake the due-process, equal-protection, and flawed-process inquiries free from earlier Wyoming authority on the subjects presented. The Wyoming Supreme Court fairly recently adopted some general rules which include grand jury process, identical or similar to the federal rules of criminal procedure: In all cases triable in district court, except upon indictment, the defendant shall be entitled to a preliminary examination. Rule 7, W.R.Cr.P.; Rule 10, W.R.Cr.P., relating to issue of warrant on indictment; Rule 18(a)(3), W.R. Cr.P., which provided the Jencks Act federal rule provisions of Rule 16(b), F.R.Cr.P.; and Rule 1101(b)(2), W.R.E., providing that rules of evidence would not apply to proceedings before the grand jury. Commencing with the redrafting of Wyoming Statutes Title 7, the Wyoming grand jury code was rewritten in Ch. 157, S.L. of Wyoming 1987. Note will be made in the discussion in this opinion where reference to the Campbell County scenario may not be relevant to future application by virtue of a change in the statute. [6]