# Burk v. State

> Wyoming Supreme Court · March 10, 1993 · 848 P.2d 225

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9608578

## Case

- **Full name:** Ross BURK, Appellant (Defendant), v. the STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff) (Two Cases)
- **Court:** Wyoming Supreme Court
- **Decided:** March 10, 1993
- **Citations:** 848 P.2d 225; 1993 WL 61807
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Urbigkit
- **Judges:** MacY, Thomas, Cardine, Urbigkit, Golden
- **Cited by:** 23 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9608578

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that statements obtained from defendant who was questioned from 8:50 a.m. through the entire day and night were properly admitted
- holding that a private individual’s actions were voluntary “in light of all of the circumstances”

## Opinion text

*237 URBIGKIT, Justice,
dissenting.
Appellant, as the victim in this case which involved aggravated assault and kidnapping against him, received sentencing on what were essentially property offenses totalling fourteen to twenty years while the perpetrators of the criminal acts against him, who acted at a minimum in conjunction with the police department and through their support and advice, got off with essentially no punishment in a misdemeanor probation sentence. Punishment of the individuals who assaulted and committed the kidnapping against appellant is, at best, even in recognition of plea bargaining benefits in Natrona County, Wyoming, most interesting. This was self-help by police department invitation carried far into the deep confines of criminal law prohibitions.
One wonders where federal civil rights are to be found in this circumstance, except that the assistant district attorney became employed as an assistant United States attorney following this prosecution.
I do not agree with the fact finding, that deception was not practiced on the beaten victim quickly turned suspect, or that a proper request for counsel was constitutionally honored by the police authorities. Things that are implausible are probably untrue; this record abounds therewith.
I dissent.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9608578. Public record. Not legal advice.