SALT LAKE CITY, July 27 (UPI) -- The Utah Supreme Court Tuesday reversed the conviction of polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs on two counts of being an accomplice to rape.
The charges stem from Jeffs presiding at a marriage in which the bride was 14 and the groom a much older man.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported the state high court ruled that Jeffs is entitled to a new trial because the trial judge rejected a defense request to instruct the jury that for a conviction, Jeffs must have known unwanted sex would take place and intended for a rape to occur.
The Utah Supreme Court, in handing down the unanimous opinion, said it knew the case was controversial. "We regret the effect our opinion today may have on the victim of the underlying crime, to whom we do not wish to cause additional pain. However, we must ensure that the laws are applied evenly and appropriately, in this case as in every case, in order to protect the constitutional principles on which our legal system is based," the court said, the newspaper reported.
Jeffs, the leader of a polygamous sect called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was convicted in September 2007. The sect has about 10,000 members, mostly located in Utah, Arizona, Texas and British Columbia.
