CHEYENNE (AP) - An assistant Laramie County prosecutor who has had three cases overturned by the Wyoming Supreme Court said she is not deterred.

Mary Beth Wolff said the court has not overturned all of the convictions she has overseen in her eight years with the Laramie County district attorney's office. Before joining Jon Forwood's staff, she worked in the state attorney general's appellate division.

"I think you have to look at the total number of cases," Wolff said, adding that it's key to note when the convictions were entered and when the state's highest court handed down opinions.

Nearly three years passed between the date of the conviction and when justices overturned the three cases.

In May 2000, Rudy Herrera was convicted of kidnapping. In February 2003, the court decided the appeal in his favor. He was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea.

Also in May 2000, Johnny L. Ford was convicted of first-degree sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl. In February 2003, justices overturned that conviction and allowed Ford to withdraw his guilty plea.

In November 2000, Dannie L. Wilde was convicted by a jury of first-degree sexual assault. On Wednesday, justices handed the case back to Laramie County District Court.

Wolff said that in the Wilde case, Justice Michael Golden pointed out that the majority of Supreme Court members had gone against precedent on the types of evidence considered to be hearsay.

"How am I supposed to know that three years ago the rules were one thing and that today they've changed?" Wolff said.

She also pointed out that in May, the court upheld the sexual assault case against Richard Billingsley, who was convicted in October 2000.

That also was a case she prosecuted, but Wolff said she hasn't been given credit by the media for securing that conviction, which justices unanimously affirmed.

In the last year, the Supreme Court has admonished two attorneys for misconduct. Both of those attorneys were public defenders at the time, but one has since left state service, State Public Defender Ken Koski said. Neither one of those cases came out of Laramie County.

"I think the court is sending a message and holding us to a higher standard," Koski said.

Prosecutors, it is understood, are held to a higher standard of professional conduct than other lawyers, including defense attorneys.

That is because the very act of charging a person with a crime can damage a reputation. They have an enormous power, justices have said, as ministers of justice. And as prosecutors they have an entire police force on hand to investigate crimes for which they seek justice.

"Prosecutors have a higher obligation to seek justice, not to prosecute crimes or win-loss records, but to do the right thing," Koski said.

Kelly Rankin, former Park County attorney and now a prosecutor with the U.S. attorney's office, said Wyoming's Rules of Criminal Procedure are not that difficult to follow, but he added, "There are a lot of gray areas."

Richard Honaker, a Rock Springs attorney who is president of the Wyoming State Bar, agrees that prosecutors carry a unique burden.

"Their client is the people of the state of Wyoming," he said. "We, as the people, want our prosecutors to act strongly and aggressively but also fairly because the defendant also is a citizen."