Jeffrey D. Billis, Appellant (defendant) v. the State of Wyoming, Appellee (plaintiff); Vicki Moon, Appellant…

Summary

The court upheld the constitutionality of the first-offender probation statute, ruling that requiring prosecutorial consent to defer proceedings before entry of judgment does not violate separation of powers. It also held that the statute was properly enacted under the constitutional provisions governing alteration of a bill's original purpose and bills containing multiple subjects. The court rejected the due-process and arbitrariness challenges to prosecutorial refusals, but declined to review the public-defense reimbursement challenge because it was not raised below. Chief Justice Urbigkit, dissenting, would have held that the statute improperly gives the prosecutor control over sentencing and violates the constitutional provisions governing legislative enactment.