Introduction to Joseph Smith’s Missouri Legal Cases
Introduction to Joseph Smith’s Missouri Legal
Cases
In early 1838, JS relocated with his family from
to northwestern to reside with the
main body of the Latter-day Saints. During summer and fall that
year, violent conflict broke out between the Saints and their
antagonists in Missouri, resulting in the expulsion of church
members and the incarceration of JS in winter 1838–1839. JS was
named as a defendant in seven criminal cases stemming from the
conflict. He was also a party in at least four civil cases in the
state. These cases were brought in Missouri’s .
Relevant Missouri Courts
The Constitution of 1820 called for the state to be
divided into circuits, each of which covered multiple counties, with
one presiding judge per circuit. The judge was a conservator of the
peace in the circuit and could conduct a preliminary examination to
determine whether there was probable cause to believe a crime had
been committed. Circuit courts, which met in each county
during triannual terms, oversaw indictments and jury
trials. In
addition, circuit courts heard civil suits for debts exceeding $90
and real and personal property disputes for damages exceeding
$20.
Finally, circuit courts, as well as county courts and the Missouri
Supreme Court, were authorized to review detentions on writs of .
JS’s Missouri Cases
After JS’s arrival in in March 1838, he worked to establish the
church’s headquarters in , Missouri, planned to build a in the city, and directed new Latter-day Saint
settlements in the region. However, when violence broke out between
Latter-day Saints and their antagonists in the state that summer,
property of church members and other Missourians was destroyed, and
by October 1838, approximately forty church members and one
non-Latter-day Saint had been killed.
In October 1838, governor ordered the
expulsion of the Latter-day Saints from the state as well as the
arrest of JS and other “ring leaders” of the
“rebellion.” JS was incarcerated in winter 1838–1839, mostly in the
jail of , Missouri. In April
1839, a grand jury for the , Missouri, circuit named JS as a defendant in six
criminal indictments for , , , receiving stolen goods, and twice for
. A grand jury for the , Missouri, circuit
court named him as an to in a seventh indictment.
In mid-April 1839, before any of these cases came to trial, JS was allowed to escape custody,
and he relocated to . Although each of the indictments
was subsequently dismissed, state officials
unsuccessfully sought to JS on these
charges twice in the early 1840s. Missouri officials also sought to
extradite JS for his alleged complicity in the May 1842 attempted
assassination of former governor . JS was able
to extricate himself from each of these extradition attempts using
the writ of habeas corpus in Illinois courts.
JS was also a party in at least
four civil suits in courts, each of
which concluded after he departed the state. While in the jail, he sued former
Latter-day Saint in the Clay
County Circuit Court seeking damages for goods that McLellin had
allegedly removed from the Smith home in . The court dismissed the suit in August 1839 on
McLellin’s motion. Meanwhile, Asa D.
Brashear, an agent for Latter-day Saint , initiated two
lawsuits against JS in the Circuit Court to collect payment on two unpaid . The suits came to trial in November
1839, and Judge ruled in
Boosinger’s favor on both. Finally, in 1842, JS’s attorneys
filed a lawsuit against sheriff in the St. Louis Circuit Court. To satisfy a
separate debt against Latter-day Saint bishop and other church leaders, deputy sheriff
Henry B. Belt seized some goods from Miller
while he was passing through St. Louis in late 1841. JS claimed that
the goods had belonged to him and sought damages from Brotherton,
who had directed Belt to seize the goods. When the case came to
trial in September 1843, neither JS nor his attorneys appeared,
leading the court to declare a .