About the Weirdest Legal Case I've Heard of in a Long While
From the AP:
Warren Jeffs might not have laid a hand on the 14-year-old girl he's accused of coercing into marrying her cousin, but he's still responsible for her rape, prosecutors maintained Thursday as opening arguments neared.
Jeffs, the head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamist sect that broke away from the Mormon church, is charged with two counts of rape by accomplice in the girl's marriage to her 19-year-old cousin. Authorities allege he used his influence to coerce her into a religious union in 2001, and that the teens' consummation of the marriage amounted to statutory rape.
The girl has testified that Jeffs told her she risked her salvation if she refused.
Jeffs, 51, was a fugitive for nearly two years and was on the FBI's Most Wanted list when he was arrested during a traffic stop outside Las Vegas. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
This case–a rare set of circumstances to be sure–raises various questions about individual agency, responsibility, the intersection of religion and law, and more (among other things, I'm curious as to where the girls' parents were in all this).
