Probation—Revocation—Right of Allocution

The Wyoming Supreme Court decided Dec. 1 that a defendant has no right to allocute at a probation revocation hearing, but it urged the state’s advisory committee on criminal procedural rules to create such a right. (Forbes v. State)

State criminal procedure rules afford defendants a right to allocute at sentencing, but the rule governing probation revocation proceedings, Wyo. R. Crim. P. 39, is silent with regard to allocution. In an opinion by Justice E. James Burke, the state high court looked for guidance to the federal courts of appeals’ interpretation of the analogous federal rule and found ...