Missourian Efforts to Extradite Joseph Smith and the Ethics of Governor Thomas Reynolds of Missouri

by A. Keith Thompson

Overview

Abstract: This is the second of two articles discussing Missouri's requisitions to extradite Joseph Smith to face criminal charges and the Prophet's recourse to English habeas corpus practice to defend himself. In the first article, the author discussed the English nature of pre-Civil War habeas corpus practice in America and the anachronistic modern idea that the Nauvoo Municipal Court did not have jurisdiction to consider interstate habeas corpus matters. In this article, he analyzes the conduct of Governor Thomas Reynolds in the matter of Missouri's requisitions for the extradition of Joseph Smith in light of 1840s legal ethics in America. That analysis follows the discovery that Governor Reynolds had dismissed the underlying 1838 charges against Joseph Smith when he was a Missouri Supreme Court judge. It also responds to the revelation that Missouri reissued indictments based on the same underlying facts in June 1843 despite the existence of a double-jeopardy provision in the Missouri Constitution of 1820.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940161790250
Publisher:	Interpreter Foundation
Publication date:	08/16/2018
Series:	Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture , #29
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	779,227
File size:	327 KB

About the Author

A. Keith Thompson, LLB (Hons); M Jur; PhD is an associate professor and the associate dean at the University of Notre Dame Australia School of Law, Sydney. He also practices commercial and property law in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia. He formerly served 20 years as International Legal Counsel for the Church in the Pacific and Africa Areas and has also served in the Church as bishop, stake president, and mission president. He and his wife, Anita, have eight children and twelve grandchildre