Jury hung on one count in polygamist leader's trial
 
Daphne Bramham, CanWest News Service
Vancouver Sun
 
ST. GEORGE, Utah - The jury is hung on the question of whether Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the largest polygamous group in North America, is guilty on the second of two counts of being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl.

The jury of five men and three women has reached a unanimous decision on the first count of being an accomplice to rape.

The court is not yet making that verdict public.

"We have a hung jury regarding the second count," a note the jury delivered to the judge read. "We do not believe further deliberation is needed; how do we go about it at this point?"

Judge James Shumate told the jury to go back and deliberate more. He also instructed them to consult the jury manual and urged them to keep their minds open.

Jeffs, 51, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison for counselling Elissa Wall to go ahead against her will with the placement marriage to her 19-year-old first cousin Allen Steed. Jeffs performed the wedding ceremony, urging them to "go forth and multiply."

Wall testified she went to Jeffs and told him her husband was touching her in places and ways that made her uncomfortable, and Jeffs told her to "repent" and give herself "mind, body and soul" to her husband.

Jeffs and his followers are fundamentalist Mormons who claim to be the only true and faithful followers of Joseph Smith, Mormonism's founder. The forefathers of the 8,000 members of the FLDS split with the mainstream church, which suspended the earthly practice of polygamy in 1890.
 
canada.com
Originally published Tuesday, September 25, 2007
 
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