GMA: Convicted Bigamist Says Ruling Hurts Tradition

May 21 -- For the first time in nearly 50 years, prosecutors for the state of Utah went after a man for having multiple wives.

On Friday, a Provo, Utah, jury convicted outspoken polygamist Tom Green on four counts of bigamy. Green, who has five wives and 25 childrenfaces up to 25 years in prison.

His defense says he never legally married all of his wives, but the prosecution says they are his wives by common law and what he is doing is illegal.

Green, who has lived with his kids and wives in a compound of trailer homes in a remote part of the western Utah desert, said the government is trying to control his family and their beliefs. Green told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America that he will not change his lifestyle, even if he ends up spending years in prison.

"I'm committed to my wives and children and there is nothing that will keep me from that commitment," said Green.

"This has been a belief system in our culture for over 150 years and I don't know how you can legislate against somebody's beliefs and expect them, if they have any faith at all, to give up their beliefs," said Green.

When asked directly if he would stop polygamy, Green answered: "Well, before I'm sentenced, that's a tricky question to answer."

One of Green's five wives, Shirley Green, said she doesn't quite understand why others are even interested in her family. "If we're fine with it, why should other people be bothered by it," she asked.

Another one of his wives, LeeAnn Green, said people don't realize that she and the other wives were simply raised differently than most girls. "I think that they're missing that we are a different culture than them. From a young age were raised to be good mothers," said LeeAnn.

Green, 52, is planning to appeal the verdict, but says he is resigned to the expected prison sentence of up to 25 years in jail and does not mind going to jail to support his religious beliefs. So-called "fundamentalist" Mormons believe polygamy is the only way to achieve celestial reward, but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints disavowed polygamy in 1890.