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Read. Follow. Verify.Wyoming Bill Requires Counties to Reimburse Defense Costs and Expunge Records for Legitimate Self-Defense Cases
Last action · February 10, 2026: H Failed Introduction 29-32-1-0-0Sponsors: Gary Brown and 26 others
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What This Bill Proposed
House Bill 14 requires Wyoming counties to reimburse defense costs—including attorney fees, bail, and lost time—for individuals acquitted or cleared due to the reasonable use of self-defense. The measure also mandates the immediate of arrest and prosecution records without filing fees upon successful assertion of self-defense.
Changes financial and legal outcomes for criminal defendants who successfully assert self-defense by shifting prosecution and defense expenses to local county governments and erasing related state and local arrest records.
Who It Would Have Affected
Groups the bill's text would have affected, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Defendants who successfully assert self-defense
Individuals are entitled to mandatory financial reimbursement for defense costs and the permanent expungement of their arrest and prosecution records.
County governments
Counties are required to pay reasonable defense costs, attorney fees, and expungement expenses for eligible criminal defendants.
District attorneys and law enforcement agencies
Agencies must review expungement petitions, receive service copies, and file formal objections within twenty days if opposing expungement.
Key Facts
- Counties where a person was prosecuted must reimburse all reasonable defense costs, including loss of time, bail costs, and attorney fees, if the person is found not guilty, has charges dismissed, or is released because they reasonably used defensive force.
- Individuals cleared through self-defense may file a petition for reimbursement in the trial court with no filing fee required.
- Courts must advise acquitted defendants immediately of their right to file a petition for expungement of records.
- Petitioners for expungement must serve copies to the district attorney or arresting law enforcement agency, which have twenty days to file an objection.
Show all 7 facts
- If no objection is filed or if the defendant was found not guilty due to self-defense, the court shall summarily enter an order of expungement.
- An order of expungement permanently destroys and deletes all arrest, charge, prosecution, and disposition records so they become permanently irretrievable.
- When a self-defense case is decided by a jury resulting in not guilty, the jury must return a special verdict detailing the specific nature of the self-defense action.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who pays for the attorney fees and defense costs if someone is cleared using self-defense?
Are there filing fees to request an expungement or reimbursement under this bill?
What does an expungement order do to an individual's criminal record?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
Follow the record
Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
This bill did not become law - Failed in the House.
Procedural history
3 actions- Feb 10, 2026HouseH Failed Introduction 29-32-1-0-0
- Jan 9, 2026HouseH Received for Introduction
- Dec 8, 2025Bill Number Assigned
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Show 22 more sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Shift of Criminal Defense Costs to Local Governments
The measure shifts financial burdens from acquitted defendants to county governments by mandating reimbursement for defense expenses in self-defense cases.
Sources
www.wyoleg.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance20Lowered because this bill did not pass (its text scored 75)
- Controversy65Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment10Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz40Current news / social attention level
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