Reader comments: Judge denies FLDS sect leader's request for new trial

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Always | 4:20 p.m. April 24, 2008
Yay!!!!!!!!
masked_data | 4:51 p.m. April 24, 2008
Bummer. And he's got the best lawyers FLDS money can buy.
chemist | 5:10 p.m. April 24, 2008
Perhaps between Texas, utah and Arizona enforcing the law this evil cult will be done away with and Warren Jeffs will stay in prison for a long, long time.
Comments continue below
super | 5:13 p.m. April 24, 2008
Jeffs doesn't deserve an new trial! Bravo to the Judge!! It's his fault that the mess in texas is going on, yet people continue to blame the state of Texas, put the blame where it belongs..on Warren Jeffs! HE deserves to stay where he is..in JAIL!
DNA works | 5:29 p.m. April 24, 2008
May be they need to do DNA on Jeffs family too.
Super deserves to be in jail | 5:38 p.m. April 24, 2008
Super, "Jeffs doesn't deserve an new trial! Bravo to the Judge!! It's his fault that the mess in texas is going on, yet people continue to blame the state of Texas, put the blame where it belongs..on Warren Jeffs! HE deserves to stay where he is..in JAIL!"

Yes he does and you and those who agree with you are violating his rights and so is this judge who is as bad as you are. Nor is the problem in Texas the fault of someone who is in jail. This would never have happened if Texas didn't act on a prank call or remove children without any evidence of abuse by their parents.

A simple "trace" of the call would have shown it was from a Colorado number and not a Texas phone and therefore couldn't be from someone who was being held captive at the Texas compound.

Also it's probably retards like you who served on his jury and they probably had their minds made up even before they were sworn in as happens a lot of times and that's why so many on death row have been exonerated by DNA. You and this judge deserve to be in jail.
Brooke | 9:44 p.m. April 24, 2008
He's served enough time already. Let the children go home. People deserve to raise their children in to whatever religion they want. The Govt has no business at all in my home or yours. I'm sick and tired of the bashing of these simple Christian Old Testament Believers. It's none of our business what they believe.
Sophlady | 10:26 p.m. April 24, 2008
Both the alternate juror and the dismissed juror heard all the evidence in Warren Jeffs' trial. So, no error occurred when substituting one for the other. Nor were the other jurors' opinions changed because of the substitution. So, the claim Jeffs' lawyers are trying to suggest - there should have been a mistrial - has no rational basis. It is also doubtful a change in a single jury instruction would have resulted in Jeffs being acquitted. He was convicted because he did in fact force a 14-year-old to marry her adult cousin.

The issue of the original search warrant for YFZ is moot. The state now has busloads of evidence of underage sex and incest there. The only way the FLDS can win is to somehow undo the sex, marriages and births - an impossibility.

The core of this whole mess is the foolishness that results in people believing the likes of Jeffs represents God on Earth and they must accept his delusional orders. That man is madder than any hatter.
wrz | 10:47 p.m. April 24, 2008
>>. So, the claim Jeffs' lawyers are trying to suggest - there should have been a mistrial - has no rational basis.<<

I agree. There is no rational basis for a retrial for the reasons you state.

What is irrational is the trial verdict itself. How can there be an accomplice to rape if there is no rape? And, to this date, there is no proof of rape. The only evidence of rape is that the plaintiff claims she was forced to marry.

Many believe this case will be overturned on appeal.
Leroy G. | 11:46 p.m. April 24, 2008
I do not think that anyone really expected Judge Shumate to grant a new trial. Judge Shumate was the trial judge and they had to go through him first.
It definitely seems to me that the one who Rapes should be tried first.
wrz | 7:11 a.m. April 25, 2008
>>It definitely seems to me that the one who Rapes should be tried first.<< Leroy G.

You're exactly right!

But you have to remember that the legal system goes crazy especially when they peruse people who profess religion with odd practices. They are after the religion not necessarily the individual. Getting Jeffs was a major step in killing the religion.

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