Natrona County, Wyoming District Attorney Mike Blonigen (pic­tured) recent­ly called for a recon­sid­er­a­tion of the state’s death penal­ty after a fed­er­al judge over­turned the death sen­tence of Dale Wayne Eaton, a decade after Blonigen obtained it in 2004. At the time U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson reversed Eaton’s sen­tence in 2014, Eaton was the only per­son on Wyoming’s death row. 

Judge Johnson ruled that Eaton had received inef­fec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion, in part because of inad­e­quate fund­ing of the Wyoming Public Defender’s Office. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead request­ed that the state leg­is­la­ture appro­pri­ate $1 mil­lion over the next two years to pay for Eaton’s defense and anoth­er $25,000 to study whether the state is ade­quate­ly fund­ing pros­e­cu­tors and pub­lic defend­ers. However, Johnson sub­se­quent­ly barred Wyoming from con­duct­ing a new death penal­ty hear­ing when the state failed to time­ly appoint new lawyers for Eaton who were not affil­i­at­ed with the pub­lic defender’s office. 

Blonigen said the state leg­is­la­ture needs to take a seri­ous look at the issue of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment: ​“You’ve got to have the resources and have the com­mit­ment to it to car­ry through with it,” he said. ​“I think the Legislature has to decide do we real­ly want this or not. If we real­ly want it, then we have to change some things.” Wyoming has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since 1992, and has not sen­tenced any­one to death since Eaton was sen­tenced in 2004.

(B. Neary, ​“Casper pros­e­cu­tor says Wyoming needs to recon­sid­er death penal­ty,” Associated Press, January 2, 2016; B. Neary, ​“Federal judge stays state death pros­e­cu­tion of Dale Eaton,” Associated Press, December 22, 2015.) See New Voices and Costs.

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