CHEYENNE - Wyoming will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a federal case involving a Colorado man who died during a struggle with Wyoming Highway Patrol officers in 2002, Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg said Friday.

The full 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver last week denied Wyoming's request for the court to review a decision that a three-judge court panel released in October. The panel had ruled that relatives and the estate of Bruce James Weigel could proceed with their lawsuit against Wyoming.

Weigel's relatives claim Wyoming troopers used excessive force in subduing Weigel after a traffic accident. Court records say Weigel died after a trooper put weight on his back while Weigel was handcuffed.

Weigel drove his car into a trooper's patrol car on the morning of Dec. 20, 2002, on Interstate 25 south of Cheyenne, according to court records. He then got out of his car and walked into a traffic lane, where he was hit in the chest by a mirror on a passing vehicle.

According to court records, Weigel then struggled with two troopers who tried to stop him from walking back on the roadway. He tried to grab the troopers' weapons and resisted being handcuffed. A passing motorist pinned Weigel's legs down.

Weigel continued struggling, even after he was handcuffed face-down on the ground, the records say. Weigel went into cardiac arrest and died after one of the troopers used his knees and hands to apply pressure to Weigel's upper body.

An autopsy found that Weigel died of "mechanical asphyxiation," meaning that he wasn't able to breathe because of the weight on his back.

Bryan Ulmer, a Jackson lawyer representing Weigel's relatives and his estate, said Friday that the appeals court ruling affirmed an earlier ruling in a federal case from Wyoming. The earlier ruling established that police should be aware of the risk that people who are tied up or handcuffed could die if they can't breathe, he said.

"In this case, Mr. Weigel was handcuffed, his legs were wrapped, and they continued to sit on him on the side of the highway," Ulmer said.

Ulmer noted that the Supreme Court agrees to hear only a handful of cases. He said his firm would file papers opposing Wyoming's request to proceed to the High Court.

Lawyers for police and municipal groups in Colorado and Oklahoma have said they feared that the appeals court panel's ruling could discourage police officers from doing their jobs in arresting people, which would endanger the public.

The Association of Colorado State Patrol Professionals, the Colorado Municipal League and the Oklahoma Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training, a governmental agency, asked the appeals court to allow them to argue in the case on Wyoming's behalf.

David W. Lee, a lawyer for the Oklahoma training council, said he regrets that the appeals court didn't agree to review the panel's decision, and he commended Wyoming for taking the case to the Supreme Court.

"We think it's an issue of national interest, or significance, because it's not unusual for someone to die during restraint by police," Lee said Friday. He said police sometimes have to contend with such deaths even when they've done nothing to cause them.

U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson of Wyoming had ruled originally that the Wyoming troopers and other state defendants were immune from suit because there was no proof the troopers' conduct was unreasonable under existing law.

In the opinion overturning Johnson's ruling, Circuit Judges Stephanie Seymour and Harris Hartz ruled that the troopers had used unconstitutional force against Weigel.

But in a strongly worded dissent, Circuit Judge Terrence O'Brien of the panel said the troopers didn't violate Weigel's rights or use too much force to subdue him. He said that if the officers had allowed Weigel to get up, Weigel could have head-butted or kicked them and civilian bystanders.