Bill Would Force Wyoming Counties To Pay Self-Defense Legal Fees

If a Wyomingite kills somebody, claims self-defense, is charged with murder, but is cleared, the county that charged them would be on the hook for all the defendant’s legal fees and other expenses, according to a bill before the Legislature.

That could add up to roughly $1 million in some cases, Casper attorney Ryan Semerad told Cowboy State Daily.

From a gun rights and self-defense standpoint, the passage of House Bill 14 would be a win, Mark Jones of Buffalo, a national director for Gun Owners of America, told Cowboy State Daily.

The bill’s primary sponsor is Rep. Gary Brown, R-Cheyenne, who did not return messages on Tuesday.

The bill’s text states that “the county where the person was charged or subject to criminal prosecution shall reimburse the person for all reasonable costs, including loss of time, bail costs, attorney fees and other costs and expenses involved in the person's defense, including the costs of seeking or receiving an expungement…”

‘You’d Better Get It Right’

Similar statutes exist in other states and are intended to stop over-zealous or “malicious prosecutors” from going after people who shoot in self-defense, Jones said.

Semerad, of the Casper-based firm Fuller and Semerad LLC., has defended numerous clients, including both civilians and law enforcement officers in self-defense or lethal use of force cases.

He said that for the most part, prosecutors in Wyoming are prudent about charging people with murder and generally don’t go after clear-cut instances of self-defense or legitimate use of force.

“I think our prosecutors try to separate the wheat from the chaff,” he said.

Regardless, he thinks the bill would send a strong message.

“It’s ‘wow,’ that’s really my reaction,” he said, though the full implications of the legislation remain to be seen.

“It is a strong signal to prosecutors, ‘you’d better get it right,’” he added.

When Self-Defense Turns Deadly

Wyoming’s self-defense statute allows for the use of force, up to and including “deadly force if necessary to prevent imminent death or serious bodily injury to the person employing the deadly force or to another person.”

There also is no duty to retreat, meaning Wyoming is a “stand-your- ground state” when it comes to legitimate self-defense, Jones said.

Gun Owners of America supports HB 14 and worked on it with Brown.

Semerad agreed that HB 14 seems to fit Wyoming’s “gun-friendly” ethic.

If passed, the Legislature would be saying, “‘We mean it when we want people to be able to defend themselves,’” he said.

Big Money On The Line

The gist of the bill is to protect Wyomingites who might have to use deadly force from lengthy and expensive court battles, Jones said.

In some less gun-friendly states, prosecutors have “tied people up in expensive court cases for long periods of time, and it’s cost them tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, in cases which they never would have been convicted,” Jones said.

He thinks HB 14 is aimed at discouraging those sorts of frivolous charges.

“It’s not designed to let somebody commit a crime and get away with it,” Jones said.  

Semerad said that bail can run from $258,000 to $1 million in second-degree murder cases, and $500,000 to $2 million in first-degree murder cases.

A bail bond agent might charge a fraction of the cost to cover bail, say roughly $12,000 to cover $100,000 bond, he said.

However, even without a law like HB 14 on the books, bail is usually reimbursed.

“Bond is just a guarantee that you’ll show up for future court dates,” he said.

But attorney fees can be a whopper, Semerad added.

“In homicide cases, attorney’s fees can easily be a pretty solid five figures to six figures,” he said.

Chilled Negotiations?

HB 14 would put county prosecutors “on the hook” for expenses once a homicide charge was filed, even if it was later dismissed, Semerad said.

In some cases, defense attorneys and prosecutors will try to negotiate terms, rather than run a case through court.

He doesn’t think HB 14 would ‘chill’ such negotiations.

As he understands it, even if the bill is passed, prosecutors could still ask for the defense to forfeit any possible reimbursement of expenses as part of the bargain, he said.

He added that some people might have a romantic, or heroic concept of what it would be like to shoot in self-defense.

But in reality, he’s seen how taking another’s life, even when it’s completely justified, has shaken his clients.

“It is an incredibly sobering and somber and chaotic experience. Nobody wants to be in the shoes,” he said.  

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.