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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Attorneys for polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs are asking the Utah Supreme Court to reverse his 2007 criminal conviction and direct a 5th District judge to order a new trial.
The appeal filed Nov. 26 alleges there were improper jury instructions, the substitution of a juror and other trial errors that warrant a rehearing of the case.
Head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Jeffs was convicted by a St. George jury of two counts of rape as an accomplice in 2007. The charges stemmed from a 2001 marriage between an underage follower and her 19-year-old cousin.
Jeffs, 53, was sentenced to two consecutive prison terms of five years to life in the Utah State Prison. He is awaiting trial on other charges in an Arizona jail.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
