This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utah's new attorney general, John Swallow, has stated that he is concerned about prosecuting child abuse, domestic abuse and … fraud (let's leave that subject to the federal investigation of Swallow) in polygamous families, but like his predecessor, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, Swallow chooses not to prosecute plural marriages, all while defending the state law that makes practicing polygamy a felony ("New Utah attorney general: No shift on polygamy prosecution," Tribune, Dec. 16).
As a current first-year law student at Creighton University School of Law and a Utah native, I cringe at the idea of thousands of Utah women and children being forced into bigamy, rape and incest. These evil crimes are committed every day in our own backyard.
This is a legal and ethical travesty. And what does my exemplary legal professional and attorney general have to say about that? "I've thought about that a lot." And done nothing.
This future attorney thinks it's time Swallow thought a lot about a new career.
Kelly White
Omaha, Neb.