FAIR
Carthage and the martyrdom
FAIR Latter-day Saints
Joseph was in jail on charges his enemies would not fairly try. A mob with blackened faces ended the trial. A defensive pepperbox does not turn Stephen into a brawler; it turns a shepherd into a man who tried to save Hyrum and the others. D&C 135 is the Church’s canonical reading, and it still holds.
He died in Carthage because he would not recant the Book of Mormon or the keys. That is a martyr’s death.
- Legal process had already collapsed into vigilante power.
- Self-defense is not a disqualification from martyrdom.
- Hyrum died with him; the witnesses of the plates were in the crosshairs.