Third-Year Law Student Appears Before Wyoming's Highest Court

By Jared Wrage (Class of 2011)

As the student director of the Defender Aid Clinic, 3rd year law student Janae Ruppert already has plenty of responsibility. This summer, she took on an additional challenge by representing a client and appealing the case to the Wyoming Supreme Court—a thorough process which includes writing and filing a lengthy brief. On August 12th, the culmination of her efforts came together when she participated in oral argument before the five justices of the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Under the supervision of Professor Diane Courselle, Faculty Director for the Defender Aid Program, Janae represented the appellant in the case of Tombroek v. State of Wyoming. Mr. Tombroek was convicted several years ago and the Defender Aid clinic agreed to accept the case.

Under Janae’s direction, new arguments were developed relating to repetitive statements that created prejudice and conflicting evidence presented by the state. During oral arguments, Ruppert answered questions on both her and the state’s positions.

During the middle of the argument, Chief Justice Barton Voigt posed a series of very pointed and difficult questions. After clarifying which specific element of offense was at the heart of the legal discussion, the Chief Justice asked Janae to essentially determine a method to measure, in context of the insufficiency of evidence, whether the question at hand was a question of law or fact.

At the conclusion of the oral argument, Janae was clearly relieved after the experience. However, opposing counsel Assistant Attorney General Graham Smith congratulated her on her performance. He also noted that students from the Defender Aid Clinic continue to be well prepared for arguments at the highest level of Wyoming law.

Fellow student interns Codie Henderson, Blaine Nelson, and Megan Ihle, accompanied Janae and Professor Courselle to the oral argument. For Henderson, witnessing a fellow student argue before Wyoming's highest court was quite an experience. He adds, “Just being in the actual building for the first time was pretty inspiring. However, Janae performed extremely well and her example will truly be a great benefit to my personal law school experience.”

The Defender Aid Clinic is just one of the clinics at the College of Law. Along with the Legal Services Clinic, the Prosecution Assistance Clinic, and the Domestic Violence Clinic, College of Law students have several opportunities to take advantage of the practical experiences available through clinical work.