Good news, everyone! One sociopathic asshole will be off the streets for a while! Warren Jeffs has been given a maximum sentence of life plus 20 years.
That’ll teach ’em. When you rape young children, don’t do it on tape.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I only just today read about this horrible person. I’m glad he’s getting locked up.
Good.
Fuck him and his co-conspirators.
I guess that’s justice served. Too bad he was able to able to carry on for so long.
Something I should have thought of, earlier: “Good. Now, when is someone going to go after the Pope?”
No no, be sure to do it on tape if you’re evil enough to do it, child rapists.
Don’t worry, you can keep the tapes from being found. No sweat.
Glen Davidson
I agree with Glen Davidson. Securing ev… err… taping it is essential. To make sure the tapes are not lost you’d better give copies to a few good, moral friends too. Just to be sure.
hopefully his sentence includes Big Bubba for a cell mate.
Didn’t take long for a fan of prison rape to show up.
No. Are you a Christian who believes a rape should be punished with a rape? How primitive and unethical.
I am presuming that as a convicted pedophile, the type of person who does not do well in prison populations, special security measures will be taken to guarantee his safety…and probably also, his isolation. I hope he has a long, lonely, frustrated life in prison.
Great that Jeffs is going away, but authorities on both sides of the border should be working toward dismantling the whole slave trade. There are girls being raped and impregnated right now while this guy goes to prison.
@joed Rape is wrong and should not be condoned as a punishment for anyone.
Unfortunately, the FLDS church will continue its tradition of opressing women, and raping children, and brainwashing its people in Jeffs’ absence.
The security measures taken is isolation. Unfortunately someone will eventually pay someone else off to get to him, I’d rather him live a long time than suffer a violent death.
Yeah except that some other dude is in charge of the compound and will do the same shit that the last few fellas did, probably more carefully. I am not saying that putting Jeffs away isn’t a good thing, it is, I am saying that the women and children still trapped in a polygamist cult need a lot more help to escape this than having their prophets put away periodically.
The man is a monster allright, PZ, but that is advocating torture.
Are you the one to judge?
Has there been any effort to go after the dozen or so people who witnessed the rape? What about the parents who handed over their daughters knowing (expecting,wanting) what was going to happen? Every adult on that compound is at least guilty of failure to report a felony, and I honestly wouldn’t shed a tear if the entire adult population of the compound spends time in prison contemplating the fact that rape is not a protected religious rite
Which part is torture?
Long?
Lonely?
Frustrating?
And is your percieved definition of any of those words any more correct than what PZ or anyone else meant by them.
i agree with PZ.
Long – He raped at least two children we know of and probably a lot more. There has to be some responsibility for his actions as well as society’s responsibility to keep him from doing it again.
Lonely – He’s abdicated some right to be with his loved ones with his actions. That’s going to be lonely. I have no problem with that.
Frustrating – He’s going to be paying for his actions which include seclusion from the outside world which will be frustrating.
/cue Walton telling me no punishment is ever ok.
Wait, by linking to Teratology are you hinting at excusing his actions?
Something to ease Your day (OT)
Wow, I feel terrible…
The first thing I thought of when I read PZ’s post was, “Holy crap, I’m reading it in Professor Farnsworth’s voice.”
… Cuttlefish Powers Engage!
*transforms into coral and hides*
Well, at least he’ll have a lot of time to repent to his God, too bad it’s a waste of time…
He’s going to jail?
Who will take care of his flock?
Think of the children!
Maybe he could share a cell with this loathsome individual. I’m sure they’d have a lot of common interests.
http://freethinker.co.uk/2011/08/08/beast-of-ballerat-jailed-for-over-14-years/
78 wives! How come he wasn’t arrested after he married number two?
Unfortunately, Warren Jeffs half-brother, Lyle Jeffs, is assuming the role of prophet, seer, and revelator of the FLDS cult. Lyle will carry on the Jeffs’ tradition of raping as many women as he can.
He’s not the only person who has received a life sentence, in a sense. Many of the women and children he and his fellows have abused, sexually, physically and emotionally, will suffer for the rest of their lives. Not to mention those suffering from various health problems associated with inbreeding, such as fumarase deficiency. And Warren Jeffs isn’t the only sick fuck in the FLDS. This isn’t over; it won’t even be over if the whole cult is dismantled.
Well, I for one hope they will not let him out into the streets even after life plus 20 years! On the other hand, what a beautiful corner market for garlic that would be! Giiilroooy!
Except that he won’t. Repentence implies acknowledgement of transgression; instead, he’ll see himself as a martyr persecuted for his faith. After all, he is a ‘prophet’.
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I can haz a google gadget for the new Pharyngula?
Read up on the FLDS and what goes on in their compound / towns.
Life plus 20, huh? Man, it would suck to be his cellmate for the last two decades of his sentence.
Chances are, the prison system being the way it is, this will quickly end up as ‘3 days plus 20 years’ – child molesters end up dead in jail very quickly.
please don’t besmirch assholes in general and certainly mine by associating it with Warren Jeffs. I’m utterly glad I’ve got one, works pretty good and hopefully, won’t be my first part to give out.
Didn’t he try and justify himself by invoking religion and lecturing the court?
Does FLDS also advocate “No special right” regarding LGBT? If so, then Jeffs should expect no special treatment — GP for him.
@Michael
It’s because they stay within the letter of the law, and don’t technically practice bigamy. Usually the man only legally marries the first wife, and then “spiritually” marries the rest. From a legal standpoint, it’s a guy, his wife, and his mistresses.
They usually catch these guys when they’re caught committing statutory rape, or sexual abuse of minors. Jeffs (and earlier Tom Green) were caught because they flaunted it in their own communities.
A well deserved verdict and sentence.
Shadow #32
He also warned the judge and prosecuter that Da Lawd™ would punish them.
QFT.
@ Brett 3:11 pm
Thanks – I saw the word “spiritually” but didn’t realize how carefully it was being used. (I do now).
I have no doubt that he is enjoying the self-righteous thrill of being a martyr, persecuted by a heathen society that doesn’t recognize him as a prophet. Being persecuted is just more evidence that he really is chosen by God.
I assume he’ll spend the rest of his life in a cell, separated from other prisoners because of the nature of his crimes, reading the Book of Mormon and going even crazier. I further assume that he’ll never feel a single little iota of remorse for what he sees as the righteous actions he committed on orders from God.
And that’s fine with me. I don’t care what happens in his brain, as long as his arms can’t reach any female people again ever.
Good, now we need to do the same thing to his counterpart up here in Canada, Winston Blackmore in Bountiful, BC
It’s worth pointing out that not legally marrying the additional wives has been an important part of the polygamist groups’ parasitism. Despite being supported by the men (usually rather wealthy if they have a lot of wives), legally they are single mothers and often receive welfare payments.
There is a book by Carolyn Jessop on her life and subsequent escape with her children from exactly that group. In it she describes the change in the system after the Warrens had taken over, how the brides got younger and some men had more of them. It is quite daunting to read.
One down, 10,000 to go.
Jeffs is just a symptom of a sick cult. And a replaceable cog in religious kookery. Chief prophet, seer, revelator, and pedophile. Any twisted guy could do that.
Won’t make much difference. There are an estimated 50,000 polygamists in Utah and they seem to be growing rapidly. The state of Utah has done nothing to stop them or help their victims.
Jeffs was convicted in Utah and released by the Utah Supreme court. Don’t forget, this cult is based in Utah and Jeffs was convicted in…Texas.
Anyone wonder how an inbred loser like Jeffs supports 78 wives and who knows how many kids without actually have an education or holding down a real job?
He doesn’t. You do.
At one time 90% of the FLDS was on welfare. The state of Utah told them to forget it. It’s still something like 50%.
Now we can watch as people in Hurricane scream “oppression” for the next decade.
Some people you just can’t reach.
so..78 wives.
I assume that he was trying to have children with all of them?
I think this would be a great lesson in how to go from a gene “pool” to “thimble” in one generation.
I hope there is no genetic factor to Jeffs’ behaviour or Utah is going to be in very big trouble.
Wonder if the Vatican has made Jeffs an offer to join their ‘team’ yet? He seems a natural to become a catlick clergyman.
Finally.
Furthermore, Canadian law enforcement is finally looking into the traffic of young girls from Bountiful to polygamist colonies in the U.S. About damned time.
Full story here: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20110809/rcmp-investigate-bc-polygamous-community-110809/
Someone up-thread mention the Canadian polygamist leader, Winston Blackmore. Here’s more news regarding that fine example of patriarchy:
Warren Jeffs allowed himself technology which he banned for his followers. When authorities arrested him, he had a thumb drive on which he kept his recordings of sex with underage girls.
Photo of Warren Jeff’s wives:
http://texasflds.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/all-warrens-wives/#entry
24 of the wives were under the age of 17 when the photo was taken.
From the Readers Comments section of the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper:
Mormons are very busy in the comments sections of most of the news coverage. They are busy denying that Warren Jeffs has/had anything to do with mainstream mormonism. They are very busy denying parallels between Jeffs and Joseph Smith.
History does not back them up. Joseph Smith made sexual advances to women, including women who were already married, and including girls as young as 14 (Helen Mar Kimball). Here’s just one example. He approached a teenager who was already married, Zina D. Hunington. Smith asked her in 1841 to become another of his multiple wives. Smith told the girl that he a sword-wielding angel was threatening to kill him if he disobeyed (this angel line was used over and over again by Smith).
Source: Todd Compton, “In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith,” pp. 80-81
The FLDS is what the Mormon church used to be. They claim to be the original church and true to original church principles and that is without a doubt correct.
Joseph Smith was just the Warren Jeffs of his day. And equally popular among normal people for exactly the same reason.
The LDS church does have some explaining to do or more likely some lying to do. They would be more convincing if they and the state of Utah made some efforts to rescue the victims of these cults rather than ignoring them and pretending they don’t exist.
Jeffs protested during his trial that his sect was being unfairly prosecuted for their beliefs. Perhaps later he will try to charge the prosecution with “sects abuse”?
This and the rapture crowd are sterling examples of how religion short circuits the logic centers of the brain. The rationale in Jeffs’ mind is the same as in suicide bombers; not act is bad if you truly believe you are doing God’s will. Since God isn’t talking, what he wants can be freely interpreted.
No it won’t.
Well, normally, as a Texan, I find our “justice”/ prison system to be abhorrent and unjust.
Not in this case.