December 14, 1843
Nauvoo, Illinois
Joseph Smith received a letter from Illinois Governor Thomas Ford in which he claimed no place to interfere in individual crimes committed against the Saints in this matter and that punishment belonged to the judicial power and not to the executive.
Sources:
History of the Church Joseph Smith, 6:113-15
"Crime and Punishment in Mormon Nauvoo, 1839–1846" Kenneth W. Godfrey, BYU Studies 32.1
Sustaining the Law: Joseph Smith's Legal Encounters, Gordon A. Madsen, Jeffrey N. Walker, and John W. Welch,
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