Wyoming

Dick Cheney’s unedited bio stirs controversy among Wyoming lawyers

The Wyoming State Bar is reconsidering its policy of running unedited biographies for meeting speakers amid a controversy spurred by the upcoming appearance of former Vice President Dick Cheney. The bar used an unedited Cheney bio that criticized President Obama in its registration materials for next week’s annual meeting, report…

Sep 5, 2014 8:00 AM CDT

75-year-old woman gets life in prison for 1970s slaying of her then-husband

A 75-year-old woman was sentenced to life in prison on Monday after she was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1970s shooting death of her third husband. Prosecutors in Laramie County, Wyoming, had requested a sentence of up to 26 years in prison for Alice Uden, but Judge Steven Sharpe…

Aug 26, 2014 5:37 PM CDT

Bill to allow firing-squad executions is being drafted in state with just one death-row inmate

A legislative committee in Wyoming is drafting a bill to allow firing-squad executions, though the state has only one death-row inmate. Committee staffers are beginning work on the bill after the director of the state’s Department of Corrections suggested the state needs an alternative to execution drugs, which are increasingly…

May 22, 2014 11:56 AM CDT

Wyoming law dean resigns, cites lack of ‘meaningful consultation’ on recent decisions

University of Wyoming law dean Stephen Easton has resigned and is airing the reasons why in an email sent to students, faculty, staff and alumni. The email (PDF), noted by TaxProf Blog, cites a lack of “meaningful consultation” in recent important decisions affecting the law school. The Laramie Boomerang and…

Nov 1, 2013 3:05 PM CDT

Scalia’s Advice to Law Students: Take Bread-and-Butter Classes, Not ‘Law and Women’

Law students have just one chance to learn the basics, so they should avoid “frill courses,” Justice Antonin Scalia said on Thursday. Scalia spoke at the University of Wyoming after a hunting trip in which he did not bag any antelope, the Associated Press reports. Previous coverage said Scalia planned…

Oct 26, 2012 2:20 PM CDT

Search for Missing Lawyer Ends with Discovery of Body

A five-day search for a missing Wyoming lawyer ended on Saturday when he was found dead in his SUV near a dry lake. Cody lawyer Charles George Kepler, a former president of the Wyoming Bar Association, was found just six days before his 90th birthday, the Billings Gazette reports. The…

Jul 10, 2012 2:22 PM CDT

After 50 Years, Wyo. Oil and Gas Law Firm Is Disbanding

After more than 50 years in business, a Casper, Wyo., law firm specializing in oil and gas and corporate matters can’t compete with the larger regional firms that are luring its attorneys elsewhere. Brown Drew & Massey, which had as many as 20 attorneys on its roster at one point,…

Dec 16, 2011 9:25 PM CST

Fugitive Ex-Lawyer Accused of Client Thefts in 2008 Is Arrested While Hitchhiking

A disbarred New York lawyer who went on the lam after he was accused of stealing from clients was arrested earlier this month while hitchhiking in Wyoming. Edward Christensen, 61, lived in Huntington, N.Y., when he disappeared in October 2008, report the North Country Gazette, the Long Island Press and…

Oct 24, 2011 11:22 AM CDT

Wyoming Home Is a ‘Little Cayman Island’ for Shell Companies

A 1,700 square-foot home in Cheyenne, Wyo., has an outsize impact. The home is the headquarters for Wyoming Corporate Services, an enterprising business that helps set up shell companies that can be used to hide assets, Reuters reports. The house “serves as a little Cayman Island on the Great Plains,”…

Jun 28, 2011 4:09 PM CDT

Double Jeopardy Precludes Retrial of Woman Prosecuted After Telling Police She Found a Wallet

Deborah Heinrich’s saga as an accused criminal reportedly began after she found a wallet last summer that the owner says he had carelessly left atop the pump at a Wyoming gas station. She called the numbers she found inside, she says, then contacted the police to seek their help in…

Jun 8, 2011 3:21 PM CDT

Wyoming Courts May Grant Same-Sex Divorce, State Supreme Court Says

The Wyoming Supreme Court has ruled the state’s courts have jurisdiction to grant the divorce of a same-sex couple who were legally married in Canada. The decision (PDF) on Monday overturns a trial judge’s ruling that courts had no authority to grant the divorce because the marriage wasn’t legally recognized…

Jun 7, 2011 11:20 AM CDT

After 32 Years, Criminal Lawyer Plans to Exit Practice to Study Religion in Jerusalem

Mike Krampner always wanted to be a criminal defense lawyer. But after more than 30 years of practice, most of it in charge of his own firm, the Wyoming practitioner is ready for a change. After working for the past year on a master’s thesis in Jewish history, he’s planning…

Dec 15, 2010 11:48 PM CST

Wyoming’s First Lady Confirmed as Federal Judge

Wyoming’s first lady, Nancy Freudenthal, has won confirmation to a seat on the federal bench, making her the state’s first female federal judge. Freudenthal was confirmed on a vote of 96 to 1, according to the Washington Post blog 44. According to the blog, the vote “marked a return to…

May 6, 2010 2:58 PM CDT

U of Wyo. Must Let Controversial 1960s Radical Bill Ayers Speak, Federal Judge Rules

A federal judge has countermanded the University of Wyoming’s decision not to let 1960s radical Bill Ayers speak on campus today. The state-funded institution had cited safety concerns, but U.S. District Judge William Downes held yesterday that protesters’ threatened violence was too vague to justify excluding Ayers, reports the Associated…

Apr 28, 2010 11:57 PM CDT

Conviction Upheld Despite Judge’s Exit Due to Secretary’s Canasta Game

A federal appeals court has upheld a defendant’s conviction for possession of child pornography despite the judge’s 6-minute absence during the defense lawyer’s closing argument. The judge left the bench because it was “his secretary’s afternoon to play canasta and he had to get a couple of letters out,” according…

Feb 18, 2010 2:34 PM CST