". . . The attorney for convicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs says jurors should consider his client's strict fundamentalist upbringing before punishing him.

"Jeffs . . . walked out of his sentencing hearing after reading a statement he said was from God. The statement promised a 'whirlwind of judgment' if Jeffs wasn't set free.

"Jeffs never returned to the courtroom, and the sentencing phase of his trial continued without him. He faces up to 119 years in prison after being convicted on two counts of sexual assaulting his underage followers.

"Attorney Deric Walpole says Jeffs was simply a product of growing up in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He said Jeffs was raised in a community that hasn't changed for centuries. . . .

". . . Jeffs . . . represented himself during an eight-day trial that ended with his conviction on two counts of sexual assault. The same jury must now decide his punishment . . . .

"But before the punishment phase began and jurors had even been brought back into court Friday, Jeffs said, 'I request the full removal of myself as an objection to all that has been presented.'

"He asked to keep serving as his own attorney, but state District Judge Barbara Walther said he couldn't leave and continue to represent himself at the same time. Instead, she ordered two lawyers who had been Jeffs' standby counsel, Deric Walpole and Emily Munoz Detoto, to represent him.

"'Mr. Jeffs, I know this is difficult for you to understand, but you do not have control over these proceedings,' Walther said. Jeffs often stands in court and waits up to a full minute before speaking. He began in slow and deliberate manner to respond, saying 'I am . . .,' but Walther ordered a recess.

"Jeffs is the ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. The more than 10,000 FLDS members nationwide see Jeffs as a prophet who is God's spokesman on Earth.

"Jeffs asked to be taken back to jail, but Walther said that would make it too difficult for his lawyers to communicate with him. Instead, he was placed in a room near the court and will be allowed to return to the hearing whenever he chooses. The judge said Jeffs won't be able to dismiss his attorneys again and go back to defending himself, however.

"He burned through a slate of seven high-powered attorneys, including Walpole and Detoto, in the six months before he decided to represent himself, and Walther said he did so in an effort to manipulate the court and stall the case against him.

"Prosecutors plan to call witnesses during the sentencing hearing and introduce evidence showing Jeffs committed a slew of crimes not mentioned during his trial.

"For starters, Jeffs had 78 wives along with his legal spouse, and 24 of them were under age 17, said Eric Nichols, lead prosecutor for the Texas Attorney General's office, which is handling the case. Nichols also said he would show that Jeffs committed six other sexual assaults and either witnessed or performed more than 500 polygamist marriages, as well as 67 other sect marriages involving underage girls.

"Jeffs spent years evading arrest - crisscrossing the country as a fugitive who eventually made the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list before his capture in 2006, Nichols said, and he excommunicated 60 church members he saw as a threat to his leadership, breaking up 300 families while stripping them of property and 'reassigning' wives and children.

"All of that is separate from the assaults on two girls, ages 12 and 15, that Jeffs was convicted of Thursday, after jurors deliberated for 3 1/2 hours. Prosecutors used DNA evidence to show Jeffs fathered a child with the older victim and played an audio recording of what they said was him sexually assaulting the younger one. They played other tapes in which Jeffs was heard instructing as many as a dozen of his young wives on how to please him sexually - and thus, he told them, please God.

"After Jeffs left the courtroom Friday, Nichols gave an opening statement, saying Jeffs was guilty of 'a breathtaking quantity of criminal activity' as head of the FLDS.

"'The defendant abused not only his position, but those religious views you've heard about as a means of satisfying his own personal greed, desires and appetites,' Nichols said.

"Walpole responded by saying Jeffs was raised in the church and couldn't betray his own religious tenets. Jeffs took over leadership of the FLDS from his father.

"'He would rather go to prison than disagree with those beliefs,' Walpole said. 'He'd rather make a complete mess of this case.'

"He later told jurors, 'You've shown you can be tough. Now it's time to show you can be fair.'"

("Polygamist Leader Walks Out of Sentencing Hearing," by Will Weissert and Paul J. Weber, "Associated Press," 5 August 2011, at: ttp://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/08/05/general-us polygamist-leader_8605417.html)

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Jeffs should have simply stood up and said during the sentencing hearing:

"Brothers and sisters of the jury, the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith made me do it.

"May the Lord have mercy on your souls.

"Praise to the man who communes with under-age child brides.

"In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."



Edited 10 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2011 10:02PM by steve benson.

"'The defendant abused not only his position, but those religious views you've heard about as a means of satisfying his own personal greed, desires and appetites,' Nichols said."

How can anyone familiar with Joseph Smith's history not see that this guy is keeping the legacy alive?

Funny that the "mainstream" LDS Church is trying so hard to pretend that there are no valid connections or comparisons to be made between their slick religio-business organization and Jeffs' hillbilly compound cult of polygamy.

The fact that the mainstream LDS Church has building named after old polygamists who did essentially the same thing that Jeffs has been doing is irrelevant?.

The fact that the mainstream LDS Church has named its universities after the bearded boinker Brigham Young, who preached that polygamy was absolutely essential in order to obtain exaltation, should be considered irrelevant?

The fact that the founder of the LDS Church is, in the LDS Church's own records, on record as being hitched to underaged girls should be considered irrelevant?

The fact that Jeffs didn't need to write his own revelations to justify his practices, but rather only needed to quote from the mainstream LDS Church's current "Standard Works" of scripture is irrelevant?

Indeed, Jeffs has proven that he has more faith in Mormonism than the SLC General Authorities ever had. Wilford Woodruff and his colleagues got so scared by U.S. Government opposition that they defied God's commandment and promised to obey the government instead of God. Jeffs proved that (by following "God will prepare a way" Nephi) it was indeed possible to keep on being proud and plyggy more than a century after the Manifesto of surrender was issued.

"The fact that Jeffs didn't need to write his own revelations to justify his practices, but rather only needed to quote from the mainstream LDS Church's current "Standard Works" of scripture is irrelevant?"

A lot of psychos quote from the Bible too.

And you can find a lot of support for psychotic behavior in the Bible.

http://www.evilbible.com/Murder.htm

But the point is that Jeffs was able to find especially strong support in the Mormon scriptures for his Mormon brand of psychosis. You could almost say that you have one stick of psychosis, which is the Bible, and another stick of psychosis, which are the unique Mormon scriptures--constituting a second testament of psychosis. ;o)

Excellent questions.

Women with far fewer options than he had took their children and ran to save them -- from him. He could have made different choices -- he didn't. And what he did wasn't a tenent of his faith -- it was abuse pure and simple.

Absolutely.

I don't know the lawyers name,she is the female that has been on T.V. a lot. I couldn't believe what was coming out of her mouth!She was trying to excuse Jeff's as behaving the way he was taught. What a stupid thing to say.

Even Rulon Jeff's father and 'prophet' before Jeff's was not nearly as strict as Jeff's became. I have many books on polygamy (Mormon) as some of them describe a much kinder way of life for the polygamist. So how did Jeff's 'learn' all the things he practiced? The pervert made them up as he went along. Hey!! That sounds just like pervert JS.

I agree about that female Lawyer. Saw the Anderson Cooper interview with her and it was bizarre what she was saying. He didn't let it slide by tho. He kept after her and his face said it all....What the F___!

Perhaps too much so. I figured that she was giving him a ridiculous amount of leeway because he was representing himself. Even so, my feeling is that many other judges would have cut him off at the knees.

. . . especially since she's suffered from polio and now walks with a cane.

Geezus, what a complete wacko.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/2011 01:49AM by steve benson.

I think the judge wanted him to talk for the world to hear and see for themselves.
Imagine being a defense attorney and having to come up with arguments for an individual like Jeffs. You would probably be disgusted at yourself.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/2011 11:11AM by suckafoo.

I hope Jeffs gets all 119 years in jail. Too bad that couldn't include castration.

The defense is ludicrous, even now that he has a real lawyer to represent him. The fact that countless men in that community are NOT predators rather shows the lie of "he's just a product of his environment, your Honor" -- not that the "I couldn't control myself" argument is generally accepted anyway.

Good post.