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FLDS leader loses final appeal

Posted at 12:49 PM, May 22, 2012
and last updated 2012-05-22 14:49:12-04

AUSTIN — Unless he gets the divine intervention he threatened, polygamist leader Warren Jeffs will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last week refused to hear Jeffs’ appeal, in which he threatened the wrath of God if he was not freed. The court rejected his appeal without comment. That effectively ends Jeffs’ legal options, unless the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the case.

The Fundamentalist LDS Church leader is serving life, plus 20 years in prison for child sex assault, stemming from his polygamous marriages to underage girls.

Jeffs is the leader of Utah’s largest polygamous faith, the 10,000 member FLDS Church based in Hildale, on the Utah-Arizona border.