Rule 2 Purpose and Construction

These rules are intended to provide for the just determination of every criminal proceeding. They shall be construed to secure simplicity in procedure, fairness in administration and the elimination of unjustifiable expense and delay. Compare. — Rule 2, Fed. Rules Cr. Proc. “Verdict” for purposes of alternate-juror selection. — Reading W.R.C.P. 2 and 24(e) together, and in light of the purpose served by alternate jurors, it seems clear that the term “verdict” in W.R.C.P. 24(e) must be read in a broad sense to refer to a final jury decision on any matter specifically committed to it. Thus, the term must be read to refer not only to a determination of a defendant’s guilt of a crime, but also to a jury’s separate determination of a matter of the sort typically involved in bifurcated proceedings, such as a defendant’s habitual-criminal status or the propriety of the death penalty. Pursuant to such a view, a capital-case jury may be said to retire to consider its verdict twice, once for the guilt phase and once for the sentencing phase, and alternate jurors are authorized to serve in sentencing-phase deliberations even if they did not serve during the guilt phase, so long as the replacement is made before the jury retires to begin sentencing-phase deliberations. Olsen v. State, 2003 WY 46, 67 P.3d 536, 2003 Wyo. LEXIS 57 (Wyo. 2003).