Last week the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum hosted a reenactment of three habeas corpus hearings involving Joseph Smith in the 1840s.  The reenactments were followed by a panel discussion about habeas corpus and its application today.  The trial reenactments were a culmination of events that occurred the day before examining Joseph Smith and the law.  In Nauvoo, various scholars addressed different aspects of Joseph Smith’s life and ministry.  Among the scholars were the law school’s Jack Welch who discussed Joseph Smith and the Constitution and Judge Thomas B. Griffith of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals who talked about opposition to Mormonism in the 19th Century.  Elder Dallin H. Oaks later spoke at the Nauvoo Visitor Center on the topic “Behind the Extraditions: Joseph Smith, the Man and the Prophet.”  Because of widespread interest, videos of the events will be made available at a later date.  The reenactments and discussion will be held again on October 14 at the University of Chicago.

Here are some Church News articles with more details:

“Prophet’s Habeas Corpus Hearings Dramatized at Lincoln Library”

“Scholars Give Insight in Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo”

“‘Behind the Extraditions: Joseph Smith, the Man and the Prophet”

Thanks to law librarian Galen Fletcher for passing this on.

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