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Jury finds Jeffs guilty
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GUILTY GUILTY!
I fully understand that a charismatic leader can take advantage of underage people who should not be expected to have developed fully formed powers of reason, and a fully formed conscience.
I do not understand why the alleged victim's parents are not having their feet held to the fire, if indeed this is a case that should have been brought in the first place.
Freedom of religion means nothing if it is limited to "freedom to practice those religions likely to win the approval the approval of a jury."
That being said, I'm glad a young girl received relief for what she has suffered.
From what I understand technically they are not performing legal marriages between multiple women and one man. They call it a "spiritual" marriage but don't get the marriage license and all of that, so it is really difficult to prosecute them for polygamy because by law it is just one man sleeping with several women and having lots of kids.
About the 19 year old, he wasn't a big enough fish to fry. He was a tool in the case and in the hands of Jeffs. I'm sure the prosecutors saw that he himself would not have initiated the marriage without Jeff's insistence.
stand before the Judgement Seat of God one day
and explain her actions.
I think if we gave him some room, Jeffs was ready to denounce his religion all together (which may have cleared things up once-and-for-all and had a real impact for the future). But because we were using our legal system to threaten him and he was facing being put in jail for the rest of his life if he made that statement, of course he was advised by his lawers to not make that statement. And now he can't. It would be suicide.
The way to remove a false-prophet is to shed light on him and let his folowers decide to leave him, not put him in jail on some contrived charge. That just feeds into their fear of outsiders and the government opressing them.
So the zelousness of our prosecutors may have cost us the only real chance we may ever have to resolve this conflict once-and-for-all.
Basically this case demonstrates prejudice against the FLDS. Also 98% of those interviewed are very happy living in their FLDS communities.
Jeffs was frames, that's all there is to it.
Even though this was not prosecuted as a religion issue, it has many overtones of curtailing freedom of religion / religious practices.
With that said I do agree with the verdict because the girl was underage, but I think there are other issues to think about too.
Prosecutors are often content to cut the head off the snake and leave the rest of it alone. Then again, now that they have a trial win under their belt on this phase, they may be ready to proceed with a second round of indictments and trials.
I respect other people's right to practice their beliefs, even these polygamists. However, this pedophilia, thinly masked as religiously sanctioned marital sexual activity, has no place anywhere in our society and doubly so for rape. Let adults everywhere realize and understand that these kinds of fixations are wrong and are to be avoided like a plague.
Jeffs abused the position of authority he had in their culture and I'm glad to see the conviction.
Are you serious? Or are you actually a resident of Hilldale?
It we be appealed and there is a good chance it will be remanded and we will go through this all over again.
The instructions given to the Jurors by the judge are highly questionable considering they tried him as an accomplice in a rape that has not been proved.
The Washington county Attorneys office did this backwards, they should have gotten Steed first.
They went for what they thought would be the easiest conviction. Wait and see this thing is sadly not over yet!
Maybe she'll donate it to HOPE. That'd be nice.
Unfortunately DesNews doesn't know the difference, since the caption to the photo says "council".
That man is finally getting his just desserts!
Sounds a little fishy to me.....
This was about Child Abuse. It is not against the law to marry at fourteen if with parental consent and if wanted by both parties. But this was about force (or perceived force by a child). Child abuse is never ok. The boy wasn't charged and probably won't be because he was brought up this way as well. He felt he "had" to marry when he was told. Also, the above comments about "spiritual marriages" are correct. They aren't legal anywhere, but in their religion. If forced, they are unlawful. Warren Jeffs performed this marriage and would not let it be "undone". This case was not directly about polygamy because there were not any other "marriages" involved. But if anyone remembers Tom Green and his case there were also multiple marriages involved (bigamy). He was convicted and served 7 years.
This ruling may not defer consenting adults, but it will help stop the underage "marriages". And in that I believe that this will help defer it because many of these "marriages" were "expected" by leaders and family at an early age.
Women are described by the men as nothing more than farm animals. They make em work in the fields with the kids, make em cook , clean, etc during the day and then make them have sex in the next room where their other "wife "is with the kids. Usually the new sex partner is a "sister" and probably her younger sister. It ain't religion. It's torture. It has to be exposed for what it is.
As for the parents of the young lady and the cousin I sure they were victoms of Jeffs and I am sure they to will be charged and face there day. The ball has just started to roll. I say let it go and stop all the abuse and fraud. Maybe the gov. could get more mony for health care of schools if they didn't have to take care of all those fraudulant poligs.
Oh and by the way when Brigham Young had all his wives it was not against the law. and He took care of them not the gov.
POLIGAMY NEEDS TO STOP !!! Or THEY NEED TO GO TO THE COUNTRYS THAT ALLOW TERRORISM.
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