Utah clears polygamist's Texas extradition

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs can be extradited to Texas on sex charges, the Utah Supreme Court has decided.

The justices denied a petition for emergency relief by Jeffs's attorneys Tuesday and lifted a stay of extradition from a lower court, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Jeffs probably will be moved after the Thanksgiving holiday, state Assistant Attorney General Craig Barlow said.

Jeffs's attorneys had argued extradition would violate his right to a speedy retrial in Utah on accomplice-to-rape charges. Jeffs was convicted in 2007 but the state Supreme Court overturned his conviction.

Lower court Judge Terry Christiansen sided with the state, ruling only the governor can approve or deny an extradition in most cases.

There is a plane poised to take Jeffs to Texas, but prosecutors there aren't planning to "whisk Mr. Jeffs away under cover of darkness," Barlow said. "My impression was they did not plan to take any kind of extraordinary measures to come to Utah and take him into custody forthwith."

Jeffs has been imprisoned since his 2006 arrest as an accomplice to rape for presiding over a marriage between an unwilling 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.