Salt Lake City, USA - Attorneys for polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs have advised him not to give a pre-sentencing interview because his statements could be used in other pending cases.
Attorney Walter F. Bugden said his client was on the "horns of a dilemma" because Arizona has charged Jeffs based on the same events that led to his conviction in Utah.
"There is no Fifth Amendment privilege that would protect or immunize the statements that Mr. Jeffs might make to you in connection with the pre-sentence report," Bugden wrote in a letter to Denise Jilgen, a probation officer.
The report is typically where a convicted felon may express remorse and raise other issues that could influence how a judge handles his or her sentencing.
Fifth District Judge James L. Shumate is set to sentence Jeffs on Nov. 20. A jury convicted Jeffs, 51, on Sept. 25 of two counts of rape as an accomplice. The charges are each punishable by five years to life in prison.
The convictions are based on a 2001 marriage Jeffs conducted between Elissa Wall, then 14, and Allen Steed, then 19. Wall objected to the union and to sexual intimacy with Steed, but said Jeffs told her to proceed. How long Jeffs spends in prison is up to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole. Shumate will decide whether his sentences run concurrently or consecutively.
Bugden was out of town Thursday and unavailable for comment.
Defense Attorney Greg Skordas, who is not involved in the case, called it "rare" to have a client facing the same charge elsewhere.
Jeffs is "in a real Catch-22 where he is supposed to talk about his conduct, how he feels about the situation and what he would do differently when he is accused in another court," Skordas said.
The state showed when it charged Steed with rape after he testified in Jeffs' case a willingness to use such statements, he said.
"Warren Jeffs has every reason to fear the government using whatever he says against him," Skordas said.