Burton v. State

In Burton v. State, 2002 WY 71, 46 P.3d 309, 317 (Wyo. 2002), the prosecutor argued that the State's witnesses "'were blatantly honest . . . about a lot of things. They had to admit they were doing drugs. . . . That's a hard thing to admit.'" The Court concluded that the prosecutor's comments were not improper because he did not personally vouch for the credibility of the witnesses. The prosecutor was simply pointing out that the witnesses had been forthright about their drug use notwithstanding the fact that it was difficult to discuss those matters in a public forum. He drew a reasonable inference from the evidence that the witnesses would have no motive to lie by confessing their drug use because use of drugs is illegal and is not accepted by general society. The prosecutor's comment was not improper. (Id., 2002 WY 71, 46 P.3d at 318.)