Purpose and Construction

Application of civil procedure rules in criminal matters. — Appellate court assumed jurisdiction over an appeal of denial of postcon- viction relief although the district court de- clined to rule on the motion for over a year; the appeals court acknowledged that this rule pro- vides for application of civil procedure rules where there is no rule of criminal procedure on point, but declined to apply the “deemed denied rule” of W.R.C.P. 6(c)(2). Patrick v. State, 2005 WY 32, 108 P.3d 838, 2005 Wyo. LEXIS 35 (Wyo. 2005). Law reviews. — For a symposium on the Wyoming Rules of Criminal Procedure, see V Land & Water L. Rev. 579 (1970). These rules are intended to provide for the just determination of every criminal proceeding. They shall be construed to secure simplicity in procedure, fairness in administration and the elimination of unjustifiable expense and delay. Compare. — Rule 2, Fed. Rules Cr. Proc. “Verdict” for purposes of alternate-juror selection. — Reading W.R.C.P. 2 and 24(e) together, and in light of the purpose served by alternate jurors, it seems clear that the term “verdict” in W.R.C.P. 24(e) must be read in a broad sense to refer to a final jury decision on any matter specifically committed to it. Thus, the term must be read to refer not only to a determination of a defendant’s guilt of a crime, but also to a jury’s separate determination of a matter of the sort typically involved in bifur- cated proceedings, such as a defendant’s ha- bitual-criminal status or the propriety of the death penalty. Pursuant to such a view, a capi- tal-case jury may be said to retire to consider its verdict twice, once for the guilt phase and once for the sentencing phase, and alternate jurors are authorized to serve in sentencing-phase deliberations even if they did not serve during the guilt phase, so long as the replacement is made before the jury retires to begin sentenc- ing-phase deliberations. Olsen v. State, 2003 WY 46, 67 P.3d 536, 2003 Wyo. LEXIS 57 (Wyo. 2003). Law reviews. — For comment discussing the constitutional requirements for guilty pleas, see VI Land & Water L. Rev. 753 (1971).