looking for justice beyond the headlines
Polygamists are claiming victory even as they are publicly disavowing the practice this week. Warren Jeff’s highly publicized conviction in Utah was overturned by the state Supreme Court based upon the trial judge’s faulty instructions to the jury.
Perhaps this is as good a time as any to point out that I don’t have a particular beef with polygamy. I don’t understand it really, but I do understand that for much of the biblical narrative polygamy was the norm not the exception. Multiple wives had a particular role and function in the ancient world and within the extended family structure covenant could be experienced and honored. In our world of nuclear family isolation where even the front porch has caved to the attached garage, the familial opportunities of polygamy (ala HBO’s Big Love) certainly warrant on open mind.
But Jeff’s conviction was not for polygamy. His conviction was as an accomplice to rape. He was arrested, tried and convicted not for loving multiple wives but for forcing young girls into sexual relationships with older men. This case is not about freedom of religion or respect of differing family values but about the fundamental right of children to grow up safe from sexual, physical, and emotional abuse.
Jeff’s conviction was based on the testimony of child who was forced by Jeffs to consummate marriage with an adult male. Tragically this too was not uncommon in the ancient world; thankfully we have the privilege of understanding now the vulnerabilities of childhood that species survival didn’t afford before the Common Era. Although our criminal justice system lags behind our scientific awareness, our scientists are now proving what mothers have been saying all along. Teenage girls (and boys for that matter) may look like adults and may even at times act like adults, but their brains are not yet fully formed and their hearts and bodies deserve our best care and protection. NPR had a fascinating piece some weeks back on adolescent brain development, or lack there of, which explains much of what we might label immature behavior. Such testimony bears witness to the important of respecting the vulnerability of our sons and daughters not yet fully matured. These scientific advances call into question our punitive criminal justice system that throws teenage lives away in the ruse of being ‘tough on crime’ and simultaneously demand child protective and support services that extend beyond the teen years.
Tragically there was no protection for Elissa Wall when she was just a child. Now a young woman, she will have to decide whether to once again tell her painful story and face the grueling gauntlet of the victim’s chair in open court. In fairness, the justices said that they “regret the effect our opinion today may have on the victim of the underlying crime, to whom we do not wish to cause additional pain.” Their decision, they pointed out, was unrelated to the child (now woman) in the case. Their ruling was on behalf of the right of the defendant to a fair trial, a right with which we ought not trifle. But I wonder who speaks for the child? If our justice’s must maintain their legal focus on the rights of the accused, whose responsibility is it to guard the rights of the child? The answer, of course, is all of us.
One incredibly important step that all of us can take is to name this case for what it is: rape. Charging polygamy garners headlines but misses the salient point. This is a case of rape, the rape of a child. Let’s begin by honoring Elissa Wall by naming the heinous crime for what it is.
