Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Warren Steed Jeffs Is Going to Jail

He has been convicted and sentenced to consecutive 5 year to life terms of Rape as an Accomplice.

Jeffs's attorney claims that this is a First Amendment issue. He claims that Jeffs was practicing his religion as he was conducting placement marriages. Apparently, Mr. Jeffs's religious beliefs including helping a 14 year old both get married and have sex against her will.

The problem with this is that he's still violating the law. The law itself is not a Constitutional violation because the law is not written to deny someone their right to practice religion, it's written as a blanket to protect minors from sex with those who could hold undue influence over them. It has a neutral application, and thus is not a First Amendment issue.

Still, it's unclear how long he will actually serve. It's going to be interesting to see what the final story is.

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