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Utah prosecutors said Friday that polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs' claims of a government conspiracy to ship him to Texas for trial "are not facts and have no relevance" to extradition efforts.
Earlier this month, Jeffs' attorneys filed documents in 3rd District Court claiming an "ungodly alliance" between the governors of Utah and Texas aimed at sending him to stand trial in The Lone Star State.
But Assistant Utah Attorney General Craig Barlow wrote in his response that there is a narrow scope for challenging extradition proceedings.
Once a governor has granted extradition, a court is limited to determining whether the extradition documents are in order, and whether the petitioner is the person named in the documents, has been charged with a crime in the demanding state and is a fugitive.
Barlow said that Jeffs appears to be challenging only whether the documents are in order but has presented no evidence that they are not properly filed.
Barlow claims that according to statute, Gov. Gary Herbert has the discretion to surrender Jeffs to Texas now or wait until he has been retried in Utah.
"No authority exists ... for a court to interfere with the governor's discretion to grant a valid extradition request," Barlow wrote.
A hearing on the issue is set for Nov. 15 before Judge Terry Christiansen in West Jordan.
In 2007, Jeffs, prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was convicted in Utah of two counts of first–degree felony rape as an accomplice.
Washington County jurors found Jeffs, now 54, guilty of performing a marriage in 2001 between Allen Glade Steed, then 19, and Elissa Wall, then 14.
Wall testified during Jeffs' trial that she objected to the union and, initially, to having sex with her husband, but Jeffs ignored her requests to be let out of the marriage.
In July, the Utah Supreme Court overturned the rape convictions, finding there were "serious errors" in instructions given to the jury.
Two days after the high court granted Jeffs a new trial, the governor of Texas signed extradition papers seeking to bring Jeffs there.