Court Opinion

ID: 9794119
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:59:54.42401+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:12:13.118109
License: Public Domain

LEHMAN, Justice,
concurring.
I agree that the record in this case supports the findings made by the majority. I would go further, however, and say in the future when the prosecution intends to offer an out-of-court statement by a co-conspirator, that at a minimum an offer of proof be made to the trial judge who could then determine with some certainty that the elements of W.R.E. 801(d)(2)(E) will be met if the proof is then actually made. See Jandro v. State, 781 P.2d 512, 522 (Wyo.1989). The risk we take by not establishing a preferred order of proof is that a co-conspirator’s statement will be given to a jury and then it is later discovered that no independent evidence of a conspiracy or the accused’s membership in it exists. The result may be a conviction based upon improper evidence or a reversal of an otherwise appropriate conviction.