Mr Leavitt, whose brother, Mike Leavitt, is the governor of Utah, is himself descended from polygamists."I think the leaders in Utah have turned their back on their heritage," Green said.His lawyer, John Bucher, said the state had singled him out as an example. If he had not been so willing to allow media access to his living arrangements, he would have been left alone. Instead, he "stuck out like a sore thumb and that has resulted in this prosecution".Mr Leavitt said: "Bigamy is against the law in Utah, and if I have a provable case, I have a duty to prosecute it." His success in this trial could spur the state to pursue more polygamists. Mr Bucher warned that the rights of those families were threatened.
"It's going to put a squelch on First Amendment rights and the practice of [their] religion," he said.Prosecutors told the jury that Green had followed a plan for taking money from the state while seeking to avoid being tried as a bigamist. His strategy was to marry women in their teens, divorce them, but continue to cohabit with them.Green argued that he was married "in the eyes of God", not in the eyes of the state. But prosecutors said he was married according to state standards to at least one wife, Linda Green Kunz, so he was committing bigamy with the others.. As he lay dying of cancer, Mark Barr wanted to clear his conscience of a secret he had carried for 30 years.
As he lay dying of cancer, Mark Barr wanted to clear his conscience of a secret he had carried for 30 years. So too, did Donald Altland. On the final morning of his life, he recorded messages on two cassettes one addressed to his wife of 25 years, the other to a detective he had spoken to the previous day. He then drove to the Susquehanna river, climbed out of his blue Ford pickup truck and shot himself through the head.When police found his body they also discovered a message, scrawled on a paper napkin. It read: "Forgive me God." One year on, the confessions of these two men are responsible for having explosively turned the historic Pennsylvania community of York upon its head and led to the arrest of seven men for a racist killing dating back almost 32 years Among those charged last week was the city's mayor. Moreover, those final confessions have unearthed skeletons that many here thought and wished were buried for ever."This whole thing is unbelievable," one York resident said.
