Polygamist leader, on trial, warns of "sickness and death"

Yesterday, polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, who is on trial in San Angelo, Texas for having sex with two under-age females in his sect, told the court that those involved in the trial would face "sickness and death" unless the trial was halted. The warning came after Jeffs spoke extensively in court, objecting to the introduction of evidence that the F.B.I. seized from his group's Eldorado, Texas compound. After Judge Barbara Walther overruled his objection, he asked to read what he called a "statement from God." Judge Walther dismissed the jury before he read the statement of demand that the trial end. She warned Jeffs not to make any such comments in the presence of the jury.

Earlier this week, Jeffs, who is the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, fired his lawyers, and he is representing himself.

Read more here and here about this week's trial. An earlier post about the sect and events at the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas is here.

Jeffs was convicted of rape in Utah a few years ago, but those convictions were overturned last summer. Read more here.