Court Opinion

ID: 9529739
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:53:47.081702+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:54.299214
License: Public Domain

THOMAS, Justice,
specially concurring.
I agree with the result in this case, and I do not necessarily disagree with any of the substantive law encompassed in the majority opinion. In my special concurring opinion in Barnes v. State, Wyo., 642 P.2d 1263 (1982), I did articulate my position with respect to disposition when a claim of error is urged upon this court under the guise of plain error.
I still am satisfied that as a matter of judicial restraint we should examine the substantive law only to the point of reaching a conclusion that plain error is not present. When, as in this instance, the absence of plain error hinges upon a conclusion that there exists no clear and unequivocal rule of law which was violated, we should not make any holding with respect to the merits of the appellant’s claim of error. As I view the majority opinion, it does resolve a claim of error which is asserted to be reviewable under the plain-error doctrine even though review of the error claimed is foreclosed by the plain-error doctrine. For that reason I cannot join in the ground for disposition set forth in the majority opinion.