Wyoming Groups support teenager's murder appeal 16-year-old was given life sentence after home invasion murder

By Ben Neary Associated Press CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- Two civil rights groups want the Wyoming Supreme Court to let them argue in support of a Sheridan teenager who is appealing the life sentence he received after pleading guilty to a home invasion murder. Wyatt Bear Cloud, now 18, is one of three teens convicted of murder in the August 2009 killing of Sheridan businessman Robert Ernst. Bear Cloud is arguing on appeal that he didn't get adequate legal representation before pleading guilty without any agreement from prosecutors in place. He asked the Wyoming Supreme Court earlier this month to reverse his conviction and send his case back to juvenile court. The American Civil Liberties Union of Wyoming and the Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based group, filed papers last week asking the state Supreme Court to let them make friend-of-the-court arguments charging that Bear Cloud's sentence was unconstitutional. The court hasn't ruled on the groups' requests. Attempts to reach officials at the Wyoming attorney general's office Monday were unsuccessful. The office represents the state in defending against criminal appeals. Tina N. Olson, of the Wyoming public defender's office, represents Bear Cloud in the appeal and said she welcomes the groups' proposed involvement in the case. "I am very supportive of their recognition that juvenile offenders serving life essentially without parole, or meaningful opportunity for parole, is unconstitutional," Olson said Monday. Both prosecutors and the defense have said that Bear Cloud wasn't the triggerman in Ernst's killing. Ernst was shot and killed after the three teenagers entered his home with a stolen pistol in the middle of the night. Bear Cloud, who turned 16 two months before the killing, received a sentence of life in prison along with the other two teens. His lawyers have argued that he received inadequate legal advice before he pleaded guilty. They also say police violated Bear Cloud's rights when they questioned him without a lawyer or his father present. Jennifer Horvath, lawyer with the ACLU in Wyoming, said her group is seeking to get involved in Bear Cloud's case because it believes that children shouldn't be sentenced to die in prison. Horvath said there's no clear record in Wyoming law that the state Legislature ever intended for juveniles to receive life sentences. Rather, she said the sentences are the result of piecing together the state law that allows juveniles over the age of 13 to be tried as adults and the adult criminal statutes that say the only way a person sentenced to life will be released from prison is through the governor granting them clemency or commutation. The U.S. Supreme Court has outlawed the death penalty for juvenile offenders and just last year outlawed the sentence of life without parole for juveniles involved in cases that aren't homicides. The court has pointed to scientific evidence that adolescents' brains aren't fully developed to support its rulings that they shouldn't be held to the same legal standards as adults. "It's inconsistent with a growing national consensus on this issue, and it's inconsistent with international law," Horvath said of Bear Cloud's sentence. "The United States is the only country that sentences children to die in prison. And we think the Wyoming Supreme Court has an opportunity to join the national consensus on this issue." The Equal Justice Initiative, based in Montgomery, Ala., represents juveniles, death row inmates and the indigent and has opposed the sentencing of young teens to life prison terms without the opportunity for parole. "That Wyatt is the only child in Wyoming known to be sentenced to die in prison for a homicide who did not kill or intend to kill anyone demonstrates that the sentence is so rare as to demonstrate that standards of decency in this state have evolved to reject it," the Equal Justice Initiative group states in its proposed argument to the Wyoming Supreme Court. The group also states that minority teenagers disproportionately receive life prison sentences nationwide and notes that Bear Cloud is an American Indian. Cheyenne lawyer Christopher G. Humphrey is serving as local counsel for the Equal Justice Initiative. He said Monday the group is getting involved in Bear Cloud's case because, "I believe it's unconstitutional to imprison juveniles for life." Published: Wed, Sep 28, 2011