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Legal Spotlight : Polygamy
Court TV
September 25, 2007
http://www.courttv.com/trials/jeffs/photo_gallery/index.html
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The arrest of polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs in 2006 thrust the practices of his followers in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) into the media spotlight. But Jeffs, who faces charges in Arizona and Utah for arranging "spiritual marriages" between underage girls and older men, is not the first polygamist to garner nationwide attention for his controversial beliefs.
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Tom Green. While the FLDS community avoids the outside world, self-described Mormon fundamentalist Thomas Green said God had instructed him, his five wives and 29 children to be "an example that plural marriage would work." His media campaign to share his life with mainstream America resulted in Utah prosecutors charging Green with bigamy and child rape for taking teens as young as 13 to be his "celestial wives."
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The Greens. In numerous media interviews, Green, pictured here with his extended family, extolled the virtues of plural marriage, a practice which he and others in the FLDS believe will lead them to the highest kingdom of heaven. Green was convicted of child rape for impregnating one of his wives when she was 13 and he was 37, even though the victim objected to the charges. Green received the minimum sentence of five years, to be served concurrently with his five-year sentence for bigamy criminal non-support of his family.
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Kelly Fisher. In an effort to discourage the practice of taking teens as wives in the FLDS hubs of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., authorities have prosecuted polygamists on charges more serious than polygamy. Those efforts have been met with little success, as was the case with Kelly Fischer, who received 45 days in county jail for having sex with a teenager he took as his third wife. The woman refused to cooperate with the prosecution.
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Authorities attribute their difficulties in prosecuting sex assault cases in plural marriages to the strong psychological influence that other members of FLDS exert over the alleged victims. The case against Arizona polygamist Randolph Barlow for allegedly raping his 16-year-old wife fell apart after the woman refused to testify against him, in spite of the fact she had provided damning grand jury testimony against him one year earlier.
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David Koresh. Perhaps the most notorious sect leader in recent American history to use religion to justify polygamy, Branch Davidian David Koresh told his followers that God had directed him to take as many concubines as possible. According to his followers, Koresh fathered at least 12 children by girls as young as 12. His reign over his community, located outside of Waco, Texas, ended in 1993, after a 51-day standoff with FBI and ATF agents, during which 76 Branch Davidians, including Koresh, died.
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Elizabeth Smart. Nine months after Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her Salt Lake City home, the 15-year-old was found walking with an older couple, disguised in a wig and denying her identity. Authorities believe she was brainwashed by Brian David Mitchell, an excommunicated Mormon who allegedly said God commanded him to take the girl as his second wife. Mitchell, who was declared unfit to stand trial, and his wife, Wanda Barzee, face kidnapping and sexual assault charges.
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Marcus Wesson. Marcus Wesson, the polygamous patriarch of a clan bred through incest, was sentenced to death in 2005 for murdering nine of his children, whose bodies were found in a bloody pile after a police standoff over a custody dispute. Fresno County prosecutors alleged that Wesson brainwashed his 17 children and seven nieces and nephews, whom he fathered with two daughters and three nieces, to believe that he was God's messenger, and they should prepare for Armageddon.
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Polygamy for profit. Some practitioners of polygamy do so for the love of money. Such was the case with Kyle Elizabeth McConnell, a Michigan woman who pleaded guilty to one count of polygamy for marrying Douglas Rice of Macomb Township while she was already married to Richard McConnell of St. Clair County. Authorities believe the men were just two of many whom McConnell married and bankrupted.
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