Court Opinion

ID: 9546286
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:26:55.132969+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:16:14.126537
License: Public Domain

BROWN, Justice,
specially concurring.
In writing for the court I supported Part V of the opinion by referencing Gee v. State, Wyo., 662 P.2d 103 (1983), and Chapman v. State, Wyo., 638 P.2d 1280 (1982). These two cases set out the law in Wyoming regarding testimony of previously hypnotized witnesses. I dissented in both Chapman and Gee, and reaffirm my disagreement with those two cases.
I have no problem, however, concluding that the testimony of officers Plambeck and Peglow was properly admitted into evidence in the case here. I make this determination without regard to the authority of Chapman and Gee. The so-called hypnotism of the two officers was a nullity. Extensive cross-examination revealed that hypnosis had not enhanced or altered the memory of the officers; and hypnosis had no effect on the officers’ testimony one way or another.
I repeat the admonition expressed in my dissent in Chapman. People who do not know what they are doing ought not “monkey around” with hypnotism lest they jeopardize an important case and cost the state a lot of money. Chapman and Gee represent a rapidly shrinking minority view and will not live forever. See People v. Guerra, 37 Cal.3d 385, 208 Cal.Rptr. 162, 690 P.2d 635 (1984); State v. Martin, 101 Wash.2d 713, 684 P.2d 651 (1984); State v. Laureano, 101 Wash.2d 745, 682 P.2d 889 (1984); People v. Rex, Colo.App., 689 P.2d 669 (1984).