Professor Amos Guiora was quoted in a January 7, 2016 story in The Washington Post titled, “Trial is expected to reveal polygamous towns’ inner workings.” The federal government brought a civil rights lawsuit against Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, that contends local leaders engaged in a pattern of discrimination against residents who are not members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Amos Guiora, a University of Utah law professor who has studied the church, said witnesses should reveal valuable information about how Jeffs sends orders from his prison cell.
Sect members believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven and that Jeffs is a prophet who speaks for God. Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence in Texas, is still believed to rule the sect through letters and phone calls from prison, with enforcement help from one of his brothers.
A judge has said the Justice Department has evidence suggesting officers dropped off packages, letters and other items for Jeffs while he was a fugitive.
But Guiora doesn’t expect the trial to influence Jeffs’ followers.
“You could bring 5,000 witnesses, but that would never convince the true believer,” Guiora said.
Read the complete story in The Washington Post »
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