Josiah Lamborn was the Attorney General

Illinois Attorney General

The Illinois Attorney General is the highest legal officer of the state of Illinois in the United States. Originally an appointed office, it is now an office filled by election through universal suffrage...

 of Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 from 1840 to 1843 and was the chief prosecuting attorney in the trial of five defendants accused of murdering

Death of Joseph Smith, Jr.

The death of Joseph Smith, Jr. on June 27, 1844 marked a turning point for the Latter Day Saint movement, of which Smith was the founder and leader. When he was attacked and killed by a mob, Smith was the mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, and running for President of the United States...

 Latter Day Saint leaders

Latter Day Saint movement

The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...

 Joseph Smith, Jr. and Hyrum Smith

Hyrum Smith

Hyrum Smith was an American religious leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the original church of the Latter Day Saint movement. He was the older brother of the movement's founder, Joseph Smith, Jr....

.

Lamborn was born in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 and educated at Transylvania University

Transylvania University

Transylvania University is a private, undergraduate liberal arts college in Lexington, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with the Christian Church . The school was founded in 1780. It offers 38 majors, and pre-professional degrees in engineering and accounting...

 in Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

. In the early 1830s, he moved to Jacksonville

Jacksonville, Illinois

Jacksonville is a city in Morgan County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,940 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Morgan County....

, Morgan County, Illinois, where he became involved as a leader of the anti-Jacksonian

Jacksonian democracy

Jacksonian democracy is the political movement toward greater democracy for the common man typified by American politician Andrew Jackson and his supporters. Jackson's policies followed the era of Jeffersonian democracy which dominated the previous political era. The Democratic-Republican Party of...

 wing of the Democratic Party

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

.

Lamborn was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1834. Early in his career, the Illinois Supreme Court found his professional conduct to be "highly censurable", but chose not to disbar

Disbarment

Disbarment is the removal of a lawyer from a bar association or the practice of law, thus revoking his or her law license or admission to practice law...

 or otherwise discipline him.

In December 1840, Lamborn was elected Attorney General of Illinois. As Attorney General, he appeared argued before the state supreme court in 46 cases. During his tenure, it was rumored that Lamborn was corrupt and that he had accepted bribes

Bribery

Bribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...

. Lamborn failed to win the endorsement of the Democratic Party for reelection and his term ended in January 1843, when he was succeeded by James A. McDougall

James A. McDougall

James Alexander McDougall was an American attorney and politician elected to statewide office in two U.S. states, then to the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate...

.

In 1844, Lamborn was appointed by Illinois Governor

Governor of Illinois

The Governor of Illinois is the chief executive of the State of Illinois and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by popular suffrage of residents of the state....

 Thomas Ford

Thomas Ford (politician)

Thomas Ford was the eighth Governor of Illinois, and served in this capacity from 1842 to 1846. A Democrat, he is remembered largely for his involvement in the death of Joseph Smith, Jr., and the subsequent Illinois Mormon War...

 as the chief prosecutor in the murder trial of Levi Williams

Levi Williams

Levi Williams was a member of the Illinois militia and a Baptist minister who was active in opposing the presence of the Latter Day Saints in Hancock County, Illinois during the 1840s...

, Thomas C. Sharp

Thomas C. Sharp

Thomas Coke Sharp was a prominent opponent of Joseph Smith, Jr. and the Latter Day Saints in Illinois in the 1840s. Sharp promoted his anti-Mormon views largely through the Warsaw Signal newspaper, of which he was the owner, editor, and publisher...

, Jacob C. Davis

Jacob C. Davis

Jacob Cunningham Davis was a U.S. Representative from Illinois and is one of five men tried and acquitted of the murder of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.-Political life:...

, Mark Aldrich

Mark Aldrich

Mark Aldrich was a founder of Warsaw, Illinois, an Illinois state senator for the Whig Party, the first American mayor of Tucson, Arizona, and one of five defendants tried and acquitted of the murder of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.-Founding of Warsaw and political...

, and William N. Grover

William N. Grover

William N. Grover was a United States Attorney for the eastern district of Missouri and was one of five defendants tried and acquitted for the murder of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.-Murder trial:...

. The five defendants were accused of conspiring

Conspiracy (crime)

In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...

 to assassinate Mormon

Mormon

The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

 prophet

Prophet

In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...

 Joseph Smith, Jr. and his brother Hyrum Smith

Hyrum Smith

Hyrum Smith was an American religious leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the original church of the Latter Day Saint movement. He was the older brother of the movement's founder, Joseph Smith, Jr....

. The defendants were acquitted of these charges.

After his failure to gain re-election as Attorney General, Lamborn had begun to drink heavily

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

. He died of delirium tremens

Delirium tremens

Delirium tremens is an acute episode of delirium that is usually caused by withdrawal from alcohol, first described in 1813...

 at White Hall

White Hall, Illinois

White Hall is a city in Greene County, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,629 at the 2000 census.-Geography:White Hall is located at ....

, Greene County, Illinois.