When he appeared before a Utah judge via a video link from the county jail this week, the polygamist "Prophet" Warren Jeffs took the first step toward a trial that could be among the most closely followed in state history.

What the sect leader's defense strategy at that proceeding will be, however, is a confounding question for legal experts, as well as those who study Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Although polygamists in the past have attempted religious liberty defenses, albeit unsuccessfully, a ruling this spring by the state's highest court precludes Jeffs from trying the same approach. More traditional defense strategies, including attacks on the credibility of the star witness, come with their own challenges for Jeffs, given the polygamous teachings of the FLDS and his role as the church's all-powerful spiritual leader.

"He has to consider whether his first priority is trying to defeat the charges and avoid conviction at whatever cost, or whether his priority is to maintain his standing in his religious community, recognizing that it may entail some criminal responsibility," said Ken Driggs, a public defender in Atlanta who has written widely about the intersection between fundamentalist polygamous groups and the law.

Jeffs, 50, is charged with two counts of rape as an accomplice; a former church member says he "spiritually married" her to an older man when she was still a minor and then ordered her to submit to sex with the man or face damnation.

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If convicted, he faces five years to life in prison.

The tenets of the FLDS, which broke with the mainstream Mormon church in 1890 over the issue of polygamy, hold that plural marriage is necessary to achieve the highest level of eternal life. Members believe that Jeffs receives divine word concerning who is to wed, and he carries out God's will by arranging and performing all marriages.

A handful of polygamists charged in Utah in connection with underage marriages in recent years have tried religious liberty defenses, arguing that, since their faith requires plural marriage, state and federal religious-freedom laws protect them from criminal charges.

In May, the Utah Supreme Court reviewed the appeal of an FLDS man who was convicted of bigamy and statutory rape for marrying a 16-year-old girl. The court ruled that "the protections enshrined in the federal constitution, as well as our state constitution, guaranteeing the free exercise of religion and conscience ... do not shield [the defendant's] polygamous practices from state prosecution."

The justices wrote that government could ban behavior that some considered religious practice, including polygamy and sex with minors, as long as the law applied to the conduct of all citizens and not just believers. Polygamy is expressly outlawed by the Utah constitution.

The court also found that the trial judge was correct to bar expert testimony about the religious beliefs of the FLDS, writing that it was useless in determining guilt "and would more likely have distracted and confused the jury."

Erik Luna, a professor who teaches criminal law at the University of Utah, said the court decision made a religious defense a practical impossibility for Jeffs.

"[His lawyers] can raise any claim in the sense that they can file paperwork on it and they may raise it for PR purposes, but I suspect the trial judge will deny it and disallow any witnesses to support it," he said.

'Go back and repent'

Without a religious defense, Jeffs may try to dispute the account of the alleged victim, referred to in court papers as "Jane," but that route is rife with threats to his role as church leader, according to experts.

(Authorities are concealing both the woman's name and age, saying only that she was between 14 and 18 at the time of her marriage.)

The woman's account of her interactions with Jeffs is the basis for the accomplice charge, but much of it is also consistent with FLDS teachings about marriage, the power of the Prophet and the necessity of obeying Jeffs.

Under Utah law, rape is defined generally as sex without consent, but included in that definition is sex between a minor aged 14 to 18 and someone more than three years older, who "entices or coerces" the younger person. Also, a third person who "solicits, requests, commands, encourages or intentionally aids" the commission of a crime is as criminally liable as the perpetrator.

In court papers, prosecutors have highlighted statements Jeffs allegedly made to the teenage bride before and after the ceremony as evidence he encouraged sex between her and the older man.