Rule 17 Subpoena
Rule Text
(a) For attendance of witnesses; form; issuance. — Upon the filing of a precipe therefor, a subpoena shall be issued by the clerk under the seal of the court. It shall state the name of the court and the title, if any, of the proceeding, and shall command each person to whom it is directed to attend and give testimony at the time and place specified therein. The clerk shall issue a subpoena, signed and sealed but otherwise in blank to a party requesting it, who shall fill in the blanks before it is served.
(b) Applicability of other provisions. — Except as otherwise provided, the provisions of the Wyoming Rules of Civil Procedure, the Wyoming Rules of Evidence and the Wyoming Statutes, relative to or compelling the attendance and testimony of witnesses, their examination and the administering of oaths and affirmations, and proceedings for contempt, to enforce the remedies and protect the rights of the parties, shall extend to criminal cases, so far as they are in their nature applicable.
(c) Allowable fees and expenses. —
(1) Non-expert Fees. — In addition to actual costs of travel, meals and lodging each non-expert witness shall be paid a witness fee of $30.00 for each full day and $15.00 for each half day necessarily spent traveling to and from the proceeding and in attendance at the proceeding.
(2) Expert Fees. — In addition to actual costs of travel, meals and lodging each expert witness employed by appointed counsel other than the public defender shall be allowed a fee approved by the court before the subpoena is issued.
(d) For production of documentary evidence and of objects. — A subpoena may also command the person to whom it is directed to produce the books, papers, documents or other objects designated therein. The court on motion made promptly may quash or modify the subpoena if compliance would be unreasonable or oppressive. The court may direct that books, papers, documents or other objects designated in the subpoena be produced before the court at a time prior to the trial or prior to the time when they are to be offered in evidence and may upon their production permit the books, papers, documents, objects, and portions thereof, to be inspected by the parties and their attorneys.
(e) Service. — A subpoena may be served by the sheriff, or by any other person, over the age of 19 years, not a party to the action, appointed for such purpose by the clerk. Service of a subpoena shall be made by delivering a copy thereof to the person named and by tendering to that person the fee for one-day’s attendance and the mileage allowed by law. Fees and mileage need not be tendered to the witness upon service of a subpoena issued in behalf of the state or an indigent defendant.
(f) Place of service. — A subpoena requiring the appearance of a witness at a hearing or trial may be served at any place within the jurisdiction of the State of Wyoming.
(g) Contempt. — Failure by any person without adequate excuse to obey a subpoena served upon that person may be deemed a contempt of the court from which the subpoena issued.
(h) Information not subject to subpoena. — Statements made by witnesses or prospective witnesses may not be subpoenaed from the state or the defendant under this rule, but shall be subject to production only in accordance with the provision of Rule 26.2.
(i) Inability to pay fees and expenses. — Upon an ex parte application of a defendant and a satisfactory showing that the defendant is financially unable to pay the fees of the witness and that the presence of the witness is necessary to an adequate defense, the court shall order that a subpoena be issued for service on a named witness and that the fees and expenses incurred therefor be paid by the public defender’s office. If the court orders the subpoena to be issued at public expense for the actual costs incurred by the witness for travel, meals and lodging shall be paid by the public defender’s office, but such costs may not exceed the amounts authorized for state employees in W.S. 9-3-103 and 9-3-104.
Amendment history: Amended July 22, 1993, effective October 19, 1993. Compare. — Rule 17, Fed. Rules Cr. Proc. Compliance. — Subpoenas were quashed where they did not have precipe or court seal, in violation of subdivision (a), and the subpoenas directed the recipients to submit evidence directly to defendant’s attorney, rather than to the trial court, in violation of subdivision (d). Wolfe v. State, 998 P.2d 385, 2000 Wyo. LEXIS 40 (Wyo. 2000). Defendant’s responsibility for producing informant. — The state’s failure to subpoena and produce an informant at the defendant’s trial does not deprive him of his right to confront the witnesses against him, nor does it violate U.S. Const., amend. 6, and art. 1, § 10, Wyo. Const., where the defendant is furnished with the name and address of the informant well in advance of trial, he does not apply ex parte, under this rule, for a subpoena to be issued at state expense, and he makes no other effort to secure the informer’s attendance at trial. A defendant cannot avoid the consequences of his failure to produce a witness for trial, when he knows the name and address of such a witness and has had ample opportunity to subpoena the witness. Montez v. State, 670 P.2d 694, 1983 Wyo. LEXIS 371 (Wyo. 1983). Physician-patient privilege must be claimed and evidence objected to or privilege is waived. — Frias v. State, 722 P.2d 135, 1986 Wyo. LEXIS 578 (Wyo. 1986).