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Much of the legal action in
Utah and Arizona recently against the FLDS that practices polygamy has not been
for violation of the bigamy laws, but for a wide range of other kinds of
violations. My blog this morning discussses an article from today's Salt
Lake Tribune that reviews the recent actions. But that article
reports
"A jury in Utah's 5th District court convicted polygamist and former
police officer Rodney Holm in August 2003 of bigamy and two sex counts for
stemming from his "spiritual marriage" to a then-16-year-old girl. He served a
year in jail but is appealing the conviction to the Utah Supreme Court. Holm is
among the eight men now charged by Arizona."
For the blog entry: http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2005/08/actions-against-flds-seen-as-part-of.html
************************************* From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Joel Sogol Sent: Sun 8/21/2005 7:04 AM To: 'Law & Religion issues for Law Academics' Subject: RE: Religious Polygamy Alabama also recognizes common law marriage. However, one of the requirements is that both parties have the capacity to marry. Under no circumstances would a person legally married to one spouse be found common law married to another. There are some old Alabama cases exactly on that point. All the cases I have seen on bigamy involve situations where there are state approved ceremonies (religious or not) with multiple partners and involve lying about your marital status on the license application.
Joel L. Sogol Attorney at Law 811 21st Avenue Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401 ph (205) 345-0966 fx (205) 345-0971
Ben Franklin observed that truth wins a fair fight -- which is why we have evidence rules in U.S. courts.
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The only way I can think of in which these unions could violate criminal bigamy laws is if the non-legally married parties (at least one of whom was legally married to a third person) were to live in, or go to, a common law marriage state and present themselves as married (assuming that there still are common law marriage states -- that's not something I've thought much about since law school), becoming married under common law.
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