Ask The Lawyer – Bigamy

Bigamy is not new.  The Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act was signed into law on July 8, 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln. Sponsored by Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont, the act banned plural marriage.  This law was past specifically  to stop male members of the Church of Latter Day Saints from having more than one wife.

This federal law states; “That every person having a husband or wife living, who shall marry any other person, whether married or single, in a Terrority of the United States, or other place over which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction, shall, except in the cases specified in the proviso to this section, be adjudged guilty of bigamy, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, and by imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years…”

The Alabama code states that “A person commits bigamy when he intentionally contracts or purports to contract a marriage with another person when he has a living spouse. A person who contracts a marriage outside this state, which would be bigamous if contracted in this state, commits bigamy by cohabiting in the state with the other party to such a marriage.”

In my memory we have not had a person charged with the crime of bigamy.  The law against bigamy has not been enforced in recent years. This month a grand jury in Franklin County change all of that when it chose to indict a man for bigamy.

There has been some confusion about this new indictment because the defendant was divorce before he remarried.  The judge had signed the divorce but there is a provision in the divorce law that provides: “When a decree has been rendered granting a divorce in this state, the court shall decree that neither party shall again marry except to each other until sixty days after decree rendered, and if an appeal is taken within sixty days, neither party shall again marry except to each other during the pendency of said appeal.”

The defendant has been charged with bigamy because even though the judge had signed the divorce decree the sixty day waiting period had not lapsed when he remarried.  He believed that the divorce decree effectively terminated the marriage on the date it was signed.

There has been a lively discussion amongst my fellow bar members about this case. Some believe that the defendant is only in contempt of court for failing to comply with divorce order. A person will not be allowed to inherit from the spouse If the spouse dies after the signing of the divorce but before the sixty days has expired.

 A divorced person can co-habitat during the sixty days, just not remarry.