A felony?

Why is bigamy a felony?Â Who gets hurt by this dishonesty?Â Does society have an interest in ensuring morality?Â Granted, this could lead to other illegal activities, but why does society have an interest at this point?

Nassau woman charged with bigamy <dl class="byline"><dd>BY MICHAEL AMON |michael.amon@newsday.com</dd><dd>9:08 PM EDT, October 20, 2007</dd></dl>

A man's suspicion that his new wife was married to another man turned out to be right, Nassau police said Saturday.

Gloria Morales, 27, was charged Friday with bigamy, a felony, police said, for not telling her 44-year-old husband that she also was married to a man from Branford, Conn.

Something Morales said or did, police said, tipped off her Long Island husband, who called authorities in September after he became suspicious that their nuptials at Town Hall in Hempstead on May 21 were not exclusive.

Comments: 10

Dan Walter Oct 20, 2007, 11:30pm UTC

"The purpose of bigamy laws is to protect a spouse from entering a marriage based upon deceit."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygamy

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Jennifer F. Oct 21, 2007, 12:27am UTC

It's so complicated to pass down property when someone dies if the marriage is not a one-to-one relationship - especially if deceit is involved and the new wife does not know that her marriage is totally invalid. Also, with new-day bigamists, often children are forced into early marriages and sexually assaulted.

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Visionaerie B. Oct 21, 2007, 12:29am UTC

In this case, obviously she's not on the "up and up". But otherwise, if all parties are fully informed and cognizant of what they are doing, I have no problem with it. Some of those stories where the guys are able to marry a number of different women, by using online services, are pretty amazing. But I sure wouldn't want to get all those women mad at me if they ever found out!! Thanks for posting this.

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Col. George W. Oct 21, 2007, 12:46am UTC

Jennifer, Visionaerie = This case is one where the WOMAN is the bigamist. Wow talk about equil rights. Bigamy used to be a man thing. Dang women are even taking that away from men. &(*(&^% Women's lib. I hape they throw the book at her. LOL

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Donna M. Oct 21, 2007, 12:56am UTC

Slow down Colonel, don't get your shorts in a wrinkle.....this is maybe one case out of 1000.....no need to cry against womens lib for this....

................and equal rights applies to BOTH male and female.....period.....

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Dan V. Oct 21, 2007, 1:58am UTC

As you can see by the article in this case the man was hurt not knowing his wife was involved in another relationship. I would say an annulment would be in order here as well.

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Marty S. Oct 21, 2007, 7:14am UTC

Thanks. I agree that protection against deceit is probably a good thing, and then the prospect of being able to benefit from multiple life insurance policies if something untoward were to to happen to former spouses. (Black widow like, ripping the heads off, and sucking the blood.)
I'm not sure that I agree that it is rare for a woman to try to live beyond her means compared to a man in this particular case of excess. Maybe there are more instances of men actually trying to swing the multiple wives thing, than women trying to swing multiple husbands, but it seems crazy to my way of thinking. Just thinking about property distribution and such (upon death).

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Susan A. Oct 21, 2007, 12:56pm UTC

Whats the reverse of a harem? A hairmen?

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Karl Leuba Oct 21, 2007, 3:02pm UTC

Susan, it is a Georgia Mirror. A merah. Polygyny is having more than one female spouse at a time, polyandry is having more than one male spouse at a time, and polygamy is either. Bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage while legally married to another person.

Now that all the definitions are up, any of them are having more fun than the law allows.

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Erin P. Oct 23, 2007, 12:34pm UTC

Because it's a gateway crime?

Save The Tatas

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A felony?

Comments: 10

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