Blakely v. State

in which GUTHRIE, Chief Justice, joins.

I concur in all that is said in the majority opinion.

I am persuaded that the circumstantial evidence instruction which was given in this case, while unquestionably the object of prior approval by this Court,1 is fundamentally erroneous in the light of Cosco v. State, Wyo., 521 P.2d 1345 (1974). A perusal of the Wyoming cases relating to this instruction demonstrates that it had its genesis in the context of a complete explanation of the term “reasonable doubt.” In Cosco v. State, supra, the Court gave an instruction defining reasonable doubt which…