国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

   

Polygamist leader convicted in Utah

(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-26 06:58


Warren Jeffs, left, confers with defense attorney Richard Wright after the verdicts against him were read Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2007, in St. George, Utah. [AP]

ST. GEORGE, Utah - The leader of a polygamous Mormon splinter group was convicted Tuesday of being an accomplice to rape for forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry her 19-year-old cousin.

Warren Jeffs, 51, could get life in prison after a trial that threw a spotlight on a renegade community along the Arizona-Utah line where as many as 10,000 of Jeffs' followers practice plural marriage and revere him as a mighty prophet with dominion over their salvation.

Jeffs stood and, like his 15 followers in the courtroom, wore a stoic look as the verdict was read.

Prosecutors said Jeffs, who performed the ceremony, forced the girl into marriage and sex against her will. Jurors said they agreed Jeffs rejected the girl's pleas and refused to release her from the marriage.

"He was pretty much her only ticket out of the relationship," said juror Jerry Munk, 36.

Defense attorney Wally Bugden, who told jurors that Jeffs was a victim of religious persecution, declined to comment.

The jury deliberated about 16 hours over three days. On Tuesday morning, the judge replaced a juror with an alternate for undisclosed reasons.

While polygamy itself was not on trial - the couple were monogamous - the case focused attention on the practice of polygamy in Utah, where it has generally been tolerated in the half-century since a government raid in 1953 proved a public relations disaster, with children photographed being torn from their mothers' arms.

Jeffs succeeded his father in 2002 as president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Former members say he rules with an iron fist, demanding perfect obedience from followers and exercising the right to arrange marriages as well as break them up and assign new spouses.

"This trial has not been about religion or vendetta. It was simply about child abuse and preventing abuse," the victim, now 21, said in prepared remarks after the verdict.

"The easy thing would have been to do nothing, but I have followed my heart and spoken the truth," she said, declining to take questions from reporters.

      1   2     


Related Stories  
Top World News  
Today's Top News  
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
平陆县| 鹤庆县| 灵宝市| 远安县| 婺源县| 乡宁县| 水富县| 桂林市| 衢州市| 祥云县| 海伦市| 陆良县| 海宁市| 临潭县| 临海市| 黑水县| 绥棱县| 云浮市| 石柱| 海阳市| 若羌县| 山东省| 城步| 霞浦县| 邛崃市| 沙田区| 营口市| 荣成市| 六枝特区| 远安县| 富民县| 恭城| 偏关县| 奉化市| 郴州市| 沐川县| 大理市| 桓仁| 正蓝旗| 常山县| 漳州市|