Polygamist in Utah Appeals Conviction on Bigamy Charges
A self-proclaimed polygamist on Thursday appealed his conviction on charges of bigamy and failure to pay child support after the trial judge refused to grant him a new trial.
Tom Green, 53, was sentenced Aug. 24 to spend up to five years in prison for bigamy. He lived in Utah’s western desert with five wives and 30 children.
Green had asked state District Judge Guy Burningham for a new trial but was turned down. He also asked the judge to release him from prison so he could prepare an appeal, but that request also was denied.
Green filed the appeal with the Utah Court of Appeals.
His bigamy case was the first tried in the state in nearly 50 years. He had appeared on TV talk shows to discuss his “original Mormonism.”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints brought plural marriage to Utah but abandoned it as a requirement for statehood. But it is still an open secret in Utah and elsewhere in the West, where there are about 30,000 people practicing it.
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