| 607 CHAPTER 28.
1842
WE devote this chapter to an account of the arrest of Joseph Smith, his trial and acquittal.
The following statement of Joseph Smith regarding this case, in his own language, as published in his history as it appears in the Millennial Star, will be of interest:-
Monday, 8th. This afternoon I was arrested by the deputy sheriff of Adams County and two assistants, on a warrant issued by Governor Carlin, founded on a requisition from Governor Reynolds of Missouri, upon the affidavit of ex-Governor Boggs, complaining of the said Smith as 'being an accessory before the fact, to an assault with an intent to kill, made by one O. P. Rockwell on Lilburn W. Boggs,' on the night of the sixth of May, A. D. 1842. Brother Rockwell was arrested at the same time as principal. There was no evasion of the officers, though the Municipal Court issued a writ of habeas corpus according to the constitution of the State, article 8, and section 13. This writ demanded the bodies of Messrs. Smith and Rockwell to be brought before the aforesaid court; but these officers refused to do so, and finally without complying they left them in the care of the marshal, without the original writ by which they were arrested and by which only they could be retained, and returned back to Governor Carlin for further instructions; and Messrs. Smith and Rockwell went about their business.
"I have yet to learn by what rule of right I was arrested to be transported to Missouri for a trial of the kind stated.
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