The Trial for the Assassination of Joseph Smith, known as People v. Levi Williams, was the 1845 prosecution of men accused of killing Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith. Its acquittal left the murders unpunished in court and sharpened the conflict between the Latter-day Saints and their non-Mormon neighbors: the verdict was followed by a formal vow of vengeance and by attacks on Mormon homes and farms.

Indictments and a difficult prosecution

In May 1845, nine men were indicted for the murders. Seven were brought to trial in Carthage. The defendants included prominent figures from western Illinois: a colonel, a major, and two captains in the Carthage Greys, an Illinois state senator, and the editor of the Warsaw newspaper. Their local standing mattered in a county where anti-Mormon feeling was virulent, making a conviction difficult to secure.

Two witnesses who had seen the murders, the apostles John Taylor and Willard Richards, refused to appear. They feared that coming anywhere near Carthage would put their lives at risk. Their absence left the prosecution without the testimony of its most direct witnesses, even as the trial proceeded.

Acquittal and the vow of vengeance

On May 30, the book reports, all nine defendants were found not guilty. The outcome was widely expected, but it still enraged the Saints. A Nauvoo newspaper editorial rejected earthly justice as the final measure, declaring that the accused would answer to God. The verdict thus did more than close the courtroom proceedings: it helped redirect the demand for justice toward religious judgment and vengeance.

A month later, on the first anniversary of Joseph Smith’s death, Brigham Young condemned the verdict and said that avenging the blood of the church’s slain leaders belonged to God and his people. He directed church authorities to issue a formal Oath of Vengeance. The oath was incorporated into the temple endowment ceremony, turning the response to the murders and their acquittal into a recurring ritual commitment rather than a single expression of grief or anger.

Aftermath and significance

The oath required participants to pray continually for vengeance against the nation and to teach that obligation to their descendants. Latter-day Saints recited it in the standard temple ritual until it was removed in 1927, after the oath became public and provoked protests from politicians and non-Mormons who regarded it as treasonous. The trial’s legacy therefore extended well beyond its verdict, shaping religious practice for generations.

In the months after Joseph Smith’s murder, violence against the Saints continued. The acquittal emboldened anti-Mormon vigilantes led by Levi Williams, the primary defendant, who burned Mormon homes and farms across Hancock County during the summer of 1845. By September 15, forty-four Mormon residences had been destroyed. The trial stands at the hinge between failed legal redress and an intensifying cycle of retaliation and expulsion.