Warren Jeffs' sentence questioned

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Lawyers for polygamist leader Warren Jeffs have filed a motion asking a St. George, Utah, judge to overturn a recent rape-as-an-accomplice conviction.

Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap told 5th District Judge James Shumate that Jeffs' jury had evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to convict the FLDS sect leader, but Jeffs' attorneys argued that the case was speculative and "purely circumstantial," the Salt Lake Tribune reported Monday.

No real evidence showed that Jeffs was aware of nonconsensual sex between Elissa Wall and ex-husband, Allen Steed, the attorneys argued in their motion.

Shumate is to sentence Jeffs Tuesday.

The 51-year-old polygamist leader conducted Wall's 2001 marriage to Steed and later counseled her to stay in the union.