Utah Polygamist Invokes Ruling on Gay Sex

Utah Polygamist Invokes Ruling on Gay Sex
    
By MARK THIESSEN
Associated Press Writer

December 2, 2003, 2:57 AM EST

SALT LAKE CITY -- A lawyer for a Utah man with five wives argued
Monday that his bigamy convictions should be thrown out following a
Supreme Court decision decriminalizing gay sex. 

The nation's high court in June struck down a Texas sodomy law, ruling
that what gay men and women do in the privacy of their homes is no
business of government. 

It's no different for polygamists, argued Tom Green's attorney, John
Bucher, to the Utah Supreme Court. 

"It doesn't bother anyone, (and with) no compelling state interest in
what you do in your own home with consenting adults, you should be
allowed to do so," Bucher said. 

The state said the court should reject the appeal because Green failed
to raise the issue during his trial more than two years ago or
anywhere else along the judicial path since then. 

Green, who is not affiliated with any church, was convicted of four
counts of bigamy and one count of criminal nonsupport of his 30
children in August 2001. 

Besides his five-year sentence, he faces up to life in prison after
being convicted of child rape for having sex with one of his five
wives when she was 13. 

"He preys on young girls," assistant Utah Attorney General Laura
Dupaix said. "This case is about a man who marries young girls and
calls it religion." 

Polygamy was renounced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints in 1890 as part of a deal to grant Utah statehood, and the
church now excommunicates those members who practice or advocate it.
Polygamy has an estimated 30,000 practitioners in the West. 
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"Madmen reason rightly from the wrong premisis" -- Locke  

"In this world, which is so plainly the antechamber of another, there 
are no happy men. The true division of humanity is between those who 
live in light and those who live in darkness. Our aim must be to 
diminish the number of the latter and increase the number of the 
former. That is why we demand education and knowledge." -- Victor Hugo 

"There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other 
is wrong, but the middle is always evil." -- Ayn Rand   

Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate -- William of Occam 

Joseph R. Darancette
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