SALT LAKE CITY -- Tom Green's head wife was on Capitol Hill asking lawmakers to decriminalize polygamy in Utah.
Linda Kunz Green, speaking at a press conference sponsored by the Utah Coalition for Religious Freedom and Tolerance, said Utah needs to guarantee freedom of religion to all Utahns, even polygamists.
"Our president of the United States called for us to not persecute others for their religious beliefs. If I were a Muslim, I would feel comfortable and my husband would not be in jail," Linda Green said.
The coalition presented petitions asking the Legislature to amend the state Constitution to guarantee total religious freedom and decriminalize polygamy.
Ken Larsen, of the coalition, said 502 people signed petitions to Gov. Mike Leavitt, while 474 people signed petitions to the Legislature.
Green is serving a sentence of up to five years for bigamy and criminal nonsupport. He has five wives and 32 children.
Green also is facing statutory rape charges for marrying Linda Green in 1986, when she was 13 and he was 37.
REAL ESTATE -- Utah lawmakers passed legislation barring the federal government from buying land in Utah for any purposes not outlined in the Constitution.
The House voted 50-21 on House Bill 208, despite a strongly worded warning from legislative lawyers that the federal government cannot be legally restricted from buying land.
Rep. Bradley T. Johnson, R-Aurora, said the legislation is an effort to keep the federal government from claiming any more land in Utah. He said the federal government already owns 70 percent of the state, which creates difficulties in tax issues.
The bill bars sale of land to the federal government except for roads, forts and military installations without the consent of the Legislature or swapping it for land the government already owns.
"You have a constitutional duty to protect the interests of the state of Utah," Johnson reminded lawmakers.
But the bill's opponents said the state doesn't need to get into another lawsuit it will lose.