Cranbrook, British Columbia • A Canadian woman is seeking to have her conviction overturned after she was sentenced to seven months in jail for taking a 13-year-old girl to the United States to marry the leader of a polygamous church.
Gail Blackmore filed an appeal Wednesday arguing that British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Paul Pearlman was wrong to find her guilty and imposed a sentence that is unduly harsh and excessive.
Blackmore and ex-husband Brandon Blackmore were found guilty in February of removing a child from Canada for a sexual purpose.
Their trial heard that the girl was taken across the border in 2004 to marry Warren Jeffs, head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Jeffs is serving a life sentence for assaulting two of his child brides.