Show Notes
What if the weapon that killed Joseph and Hyrum Smith at Carthage Jail wasn't really a gun — but the legal system itself? Most Latter-day Saints have only a vague sense of why Joseph was even in that jail on June 27, 1844. The real story goes back years, and it looks a lot like a conspiracy.
Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot trace "the road to Carthage" — drawing on Carthage Conspiracy by Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill (University of Illinois Press) and Joseph I. Bentley's "Road to Martyrdom: Joseph Smith's Last Legal Cases," along with related work in Sustaining the Law — to show how Joseph's enemies weaponized the courts to pull him out of Nauvoo and keep him in Carthage long enough to kill him.
===Informed Saints Credits=== Produced by The Ancient America Foundation Producer: Spencer Clark Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye
In this episode:
The three Missouri extradition attempts (1841, 1842, 1843) and the Mormon War of 1838 behind them How Joseph used habeas corpus — from Magna Carta to the Nauvoo municipal court — to thwart extradition The six dissidents (William & Wilson Law, Robert & Charles Foster, Francis & Chauncey Higbee) and their break with Joseph over plural marriage "Lawfare" in action — adultery charges, riot charges, and the goal that was never conviction Thomas Sharp, the Warsaw Signal, and the open calls for extermination The Nauvoo Expositor and the "three polys": polygamy, polytheism, and politics Three Expositor myths debunked — suppressing the truth, the First Amendment, and the "neutral truth-teller" pose (the 14th Amendment, 1868, and Near v. Minnesota, 1931) Suppressing the paper vs. destroying the press — where the legal overreach actually was The exorbitant bail, Governor Ford's empty guarantees, and the last-minute treason charge — and why treason, a non-bailable capital offense, was the whole point
Subscribe for more faithful scholarship every week. Study deeply, believe boldly.
Primary source
Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill, Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith (University of Illinois Press) Joseph I. Bentley, "Road to Martyrdom: Joseph Smith's Last Legal Cases"
Scholarly sources mentioned in the episode
Dallin H. Oaks, "Suppressing the Nauvoo Expositor" (in Sustaining the Law) Sustaining the Law: Joseph Smith's Legal Encounters (Jane H. Wise / Gordon A. Madsen, eds.) — collected legal-history essays referenced throughout Craig L. Foster, article in Interpreter on 19th-century precedents for suppressing newspapers Brian C. Hales, on plural marriage and "polygamy insiders" (referenced terminology)
Related background reading
Near v. Minnesota (1931) — landmark First Amendment / prior-restraint case discussed in the episode Richard E. Turley Jr., Ronald W. Walker, and Glen M. Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows (Oxford University Press) — for the later-trauma context the hosts flag
===Discover=== If any of our thoughts resonated with you, consider learning more about the single most influential book in our lives. https://www.discoverbookofmormon.org/
===Content Disclaimer=== The views expressed represent ours alone and do not necessarily reflect the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
#JosephSmith #Carthage #BookOfMormon #LDS #ComeFollowMe #ChurchHistory #Nauvoo #LatterDaySaints #DallinHOaks #NauvooExpositor #MormonHistory #HyrumSmith #ThomasFord #FirstAmendment #Hab...
More from Informed Saints
Did Joseph Smith ever reveal where the Book of Mormon took place? The very first missionaries told reporters that Lehi landed in Chile, and that the Nephites' final battle ran all the way from Panama to New York. So where did that picture come from, and has the question ever been settled by revelation?
Was Quetzalcoatl really Jesus Christ? Is the famous "Lehi Stone" actually a carving of Lehi's tree of life? And if the Book of Mormon is true, why hasn't DNA found the Nephites? A Mesoamerican historian who believes the Book of Mormon takes on the myths that never seem to die.
We're diving into the top highlights and reveals of the October 2026 General Conference, including a surprising address from President Christofferson on the spiritual dangers of gambling.
Jesus told us to search Isaiah diligently—so why does it so often feel like a closed book? What if the passages that confuse us most are actually some of the most carefully crafted poetry in all of scripture?
Everyone knows where the Hill Cumorah is… right? Joseph Smith received the gold plates from a hill in upstate New York. But is that the same hill where Mormon hid the Nephite records and the Nephites made their last stand in Mormon 6? It's one of the most debated questions in Book of Mormon geography, and the history behind it may surprise you.