The University of Wyoming’s Potter Law Club is holding their annual Spring Panel Presentation tomorrow. 

The panel will discuss a murder trial out of Colorado that went dreadfully wrong.   

The panel will take place at 7 p.m. in Classroom Building Room 129. The event is free and open to the public.   

This year’s panel will consist of the first-hand account of Tim Masters, a man who was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder. The panel will also include Masters’ attorneys Maria Lui and David Wymore discussing the case.

According to a UW news release, Tim Masters was convicted in 1987 of the first-degree murder of 37-year-old Peggy Hettrick. 

After years of lost appeals, Masters’ case was reopened, and he was granted a new trial in 2007, in which Masters’ DNA was proven not to match the DNA on Hettrick’s body. 

After this discovery and the release of more information that had been hidden from Masters’ defense team in previous trials, murder charges against Masters were dropped by prosecutors. 

For those who attend the Potter Law Club panel, Continuing Legal Education Credit will be available. 

The UW Potter Law Club is the UW College of Law’s student bar organization. The club provides student government as well as academic and social activities to increase the educational experiences for Wyoming law students.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to defeat a bill Monday to overhaul Wyoming’s drunken driving laws. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Keith Gingery, R-Jackson, would have enhanced penalties and created a new crime of aggravated DUI for an offender with a blood alcohol content of .15 or more.

Gingery said his bill was aimed at repeat drunk drivers. “These aren’t radical bills. They are middle of the road, common sense bills,” Gingery said. “And even they can’t make it, so I’m not sure where we are going for alcohol-related statutes.”

The committee members who voted against the bill had concerns about its scope and the possibility of unintended consequences and won’t consider another bill to enhance DUI penalties.

Senate File 88 is the only one of three DUI bills debated this session that is still making progress. The bill, currently on the house floor, would mandate the use of in-car Breathalyzer tests for some convicted drunken drivers.

The bill would place ignition interlock devices in the vehicles of some DUI convicts; if the Breathalyzer detects alcohol, the car won’t start. The bill would require first offenders arrested with a blood alcohol content of .15 or greater and all second offenders to have the device installed in their cars. The bill has already passed the senate. 

The Senate Revenue Committee voted down a bill Tuesday that would have added an additional penny to the fuel tax to help pay for uncompensated trauma care. 

HB 244 would have raised $6.2 million for a fund in the Department of Health. 

Rep. Roy Cohee, R-Natrona, the bill’s sponsor, said trauma centers are “bleeding red ink” because many of the patients are unable to pay their bills.

The Department of Health currently pays $2.5 million for trauma care in a two-year period. The Legislative Service Office says the Department of Health received about $8 million in claims in just the first quarter of the current two-year period. 

SF 24, which could create a health care pilot project that may reduce health care costs, is waiting in general file in the house. 

The bill, which got a favorable vote from the House Labor, Health and Social Services Committee, will cost $2.1 million to fund the pilot program and will last three to four years. 

The evaluation process in the bill will be important to show how well the new concepts work and if  “they can be translated into health care for other programs, like Medicaid, the SCHIP health insurance program, or even private insurance programs,” Dr. Brent Sherard, director of the Department of Health, said.

Sen. Charles Scott, R-Natrona and Dr. Brent Sherard, director of the Department of Health, said they were pleased with the bill as it goes to the House floor, saying the House committee amendment made the bill better.

The pilot project would enroll about 500 working-poor in the state to receive health savings accounts. 

The enrollees also would get high-deductible health insurance accounts but the co-payment for a physician’s visit would cost less than with traditional policies.

The bill is the only health care reform bill before the legislature this session.

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