I am Ryan McKnight. I'm Kara Santa Maria. I am Christopher Smith. Hi, I'm Andrew Torres. This is

Naked Mormonism. The Serial Mormon History podcast. Joseph Smith and his arresting posse had made it safely back to Navu.

It's June 30th, 1843.

The sun was shining.

Thousands of people were in the streets greeting the prophet upon his return.

The Navu Legion, they were out with their arms.

The band was playing. Joe returned to the

loving embrace of his mother, his first wife Emma, and his children who had been tortured with

uncertainty for over a week from when they had first heard that Joe was arrested by Sheriff Wilson

and Reynolds of Illinois and Missouri, respectively. But now, Joe was in his kingdom, surrounded by his bodyguards, ready to roam

freely as his desires led him. However, the week of multiple arrests by multiple individuals, it created

a tangled mess, legally speaking. When Joseph was first arrested, he attained a writ of habeas corpus

for the Dixon court, but that judge was, well, he attained a writ of habeas corpus for the Dixon Court,

but that judge was conveniently out of town at the time.

So the new writ in his hand was much broader, and it granted the writ to be heard at any nearby court with jurisdiction.

Now, add into this chaos, Joe's friend Sheriff, had arrested the sheriffs who had arrested Joseph Smith,

and they were given to the custody of General Wilson Law of the Navu Legion.

So everybody was in everybody else's custody, and the Navu Legion had final say, and of course,

Joseph Smith was commander-in-chief of the Navu Legion.

Further, Joe was mayor of Navu and chief chairman of municipal court

hearings, meaning that he was in the position to be the primary guy to chair the hearing on

whether or not to grant his writ of habeas corpus. Seems like an ethical mayor would recuse himself

...