Appeal from the District Court of Sheridan County. The Honorable John G. Fenn, Judge.
Representing Appellant: Office of the Public Defender: Diane Lozano, State Public Defender; Tina N. Olson, Chief Appellate Counsel; David E. Westling, Senior Assistant Appellate Counsel.
Representing Appellee: Peter K. Michael, Wyoming Attorney General; David L. Delicath, Deputy Attorney General; Jenny L. Craig, Senior Assistant Attorney General.
Before BURKE, C.J., and HILL, DAVIS, FOX, and KAUTZ, JJ.
OPINION
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DAVIS, Justice.
[¶1] Appellant Dennis Anthony Poitra, Jr., filed a motion to reduce his sentence of life without the possibility of parole to life as a matter of law. In support of his motion, he argued before the district court that because two juvenile codefendants may receive life sentences with the possibility of parole due to a United States Supreme Court decision and changes in the Wyoming Statutes, his sentence should be the same because he was just
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over the age of majority and no more mature when the crimes were committed.
[¶2] On appeal, Poitra argues that his sentence violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment and denies him equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment.[1] Because the constitutional issues were not raised below, because the equal protection argument is not cogently presented on appeal, and because the Eighth Amendment claim is not of a fundamental nature, we affirm.
ISSUES
[¶3] We restate the issues as we have been able to distill them from the briefs as follows:
1. Can Poitra raise an Eighth Amendment cruel and unusual punishment claim for the first time on appeal?
2. Can Poitra raise a Fourteenth Amendment equal protection claim for the first time on appeal?
3. If neither claim was preserved, did the district court abuse its discretion in denying the ...