Marriage Public Record as Criminal Evidence

Marriage records have plenty of uses. Not only are they testaments of two people in love and who have legalized their union, evidence of other marriage records by either party (while still married to each other) is proof of a criminal nature.

Marriage public record issues come to the forefront whenever notorious bigamists (or polygamists!) are featured in the news. It’s an all too common suburban story: lonely females — some with children, some without — marry a nice gentleman…who turns out to have married several other such women in as many states!

Some bigamists, however, are not that subtle.

In May 2006, CNN’s Larry King Live featured a story of a man who had just made the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List along with Osama Bin Laden. Utah and Arizona authorities were hunting down Warren Jeffs, the head of a polygamist sect, for, among other crimes, marrying old men and underage girls.

When Larry King asked Utah State Attorney General Mark Shurtleff why he wasn’t going after the thousands of polygamists in Utah as well, Shurtleff replied that the government does not have the logistics to jail every adult bigamist and put their children in foster care. So they just focus on those who commit the really heinous crimes, such as Jeffs.

Marriage Public Record - A Tool for Vigilance

Where two separate sets of marriage public record (license and/or certificate) bearing the same name of one spouse exist, and the other signatory is still living, or has not been divorced, there is evidence of fraud. Even if all parties consent to the arrangement, it would still be a crime and cause for legal action.

Under US federal and state laws, bigamy is defined as the crime of a person who marries a second spouse while the first is still living or from whom no divorce has taken place; while polygamy is the crime of a person who marries multiple spouses.

And since, as Utah AG Shurtleff candidly stated, it is impossible for the government to prosecute every known bigamist, women across America (as they are the common victims) would be wise to be vigilant; and if not exactly skeptical, at least cautious.

Marriage certificates, documents that prove a marriage exists, are a matter of public record. However, the kind of access varies from state to state; some allow you to obtain certified records you can use for legal purposes, others only give verification, and yet others allow open access.

Whatever access your state grants you, the marriage record you need to put your suspicions to rest (if you are indeed suspicious) is there for you to check out. And where better to start checking than to use the top sites for marriage records featured and reviewed on RecordsSiteReviews?
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