Editing Mountain Meadows Massacre (section)

==History==
===Baker–Fancher party===
{{main|Baker–Fancher party}}
In early 1857, the [[Baker–Fancher party]] was formed from several groups mainly from [[Marion County, Arkansas|Marion]], [[Crawford County, Arkansas|Crawford]], [[Carroll County, Arkansas|Carroll]] and [[Johnson County, Arkansas|Johnson]] counties in northwestern [[Arkansas]]. They assembled into a [[wagon train]] at Beller's Stand, south of [[Harrison, Arkansas|Harrison]], to emigrate to southern [[California]]. The group was initially referred to as both the Baker train and the Perkins train, but later referred to as the Baker–Fancher train (or party). It was named after "Colonel" Alexander Fancher who, having already made the journey to California twice before, had become its main leader.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia| last = Finck| first = James| entry = Mountain Meadows Massacre| date=9 August 2024| encyclopedia = [[Encyclopedia of Arkansas]]|publisher=[[Central Arkansas Library System]]| location = Little Rock, Arkansas| entry-url = http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=129}}</ref> By contemporary standards the Baker–Fancher party was prosperous, carefully organized and well-equipped for the journey.<ref>{{harvp|Bancroft|1889|p=545}}; {{harvp|Linn|1902|loc=Chap. XVI, 4th full paragraph}}.</ref> They were joined along the way by families and individuals from other states, including [[Missouri]].<ref>{{harvp|Bancroft|1889|p=544}}; {{harvp|Gibbs|1910|p=12}}.</ref> The group was relatively wealthy, and planned to restock its supplies in [[Salt Lake City]], as did most wagon trains at the time.

===Interactions with Mormon settlers===
{{See also|War hysteria preceding the Mountain Meadows Massacre}}
At the time of the Fanchers' arrival, the [[Utah Territory]], though legally a democracy, was effectively a [[theodemocracy|theocracy]] under the leadership of [[Brigham Young]], the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), who had established colonies along the [[California Trail]] and the Old Spanish Trail. [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[James Buchanan]] had recently issued an order to send federal troops to Utah, which led to rumors being spread in the territory about its motives. Young issued various orders that urged the local population to prepare for the arrival of the troops. Eventually Young issued a declaration of [[martial law]].{{sfnp|Shirts|1994|loc=Paragraph 3}}

The Baker–Fancher party was refused provisions in Salt Lake City and chose to leave there and take the Old Spanish Trail, which passed through southern Utah.{{sfnp|Shirts|1994|loc=Paragraph 2}} In August 1857, the [[Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (LDS Church)|Mormon apostle]] [[George A. Smith]] traveled throughout the southern part of the territory instructing Mormon settlers to stockpile grain.<ref name=PeopleVLee/> While on his return trip to Salt Lake City, Smith camped near the Baker–Fancher party on August 25, 1857, at Corn Creek. They had traveled the {{convert|165|mi|km}} south from Salt Lake City, and [[Jacob Hamblin]] suggested that the wagon train continue on the trail and rest their cattle at Mountain Meadows, which had good pasture and was adjacent to his [[homestead (building)|homestead]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Little |first1=James A. |title=Jacob Hamblin: A Narrative of His Personal Experience |series=The Faith-Promoting Series |page=48 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Jacob_Hamblin_a_Narrative_of_His_Persona/Ixg1AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 |orig-date=1881|date=1909 |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Deseret News]] |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

While most witnesses said that the Fanchers were in general a peaceful party whose members behaved well along the trail, rumors spread about their supposed misdeeds.<ref>{{Cite news| last=Young| first=Brigham| author-link=Brigham Young| title=Interview with Brigham Young| newspaper=[[Deseret News]]|date=May 23, 1877| volume=26| issue=16| url=https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2626783| quote=If you were to inquire of the people who lived hereabouts, and lived in the country at that time, you would find, ... that some of this Arkansas company ...boasted of having to helped to kill Hyrum and Joseph Smith and the Mormons in Missouri, and that they never meant to leave the Territory until similar scenes were enacted here.|via=[[University of Utah]]}}</ref> [[United States Army]] [[Brevet (military)|Brevet]] Major [[James Henry Carleton]] led the first federal investigation of the murders, and the findings were published in 1859. He recorded Hamblin's account that the train was alleged to have poisoned a spring near Corn Creek, resulting in the deaths of eighteen cows and two or three people who ate the contaminated meat. Carleton interviewed the father of a child who allegedly died from this poisoned spring and accepted the sincerity of the grieving father. He also included a statement from an investigator who did not believe the Fancher party was capable of poisoning the spring, given its size. Carleton invited readers to consider a potential explanation for the rumors of misdeeds, noting the general atmosphere of distrust among Mormons for strangers at the time, and that some locals appeared jealous of the Fancher party's wealth.{{sfnp|Carleton|1902}}

===Conspiracy and siege===
{{main|Conspiracy and siege of the Mountain Meadows Massacre}}
The Baker–Fancher party left Corn Creek and continued the {{convert|125|mi|km}} to Mountain Meadows, passing Parowan and [[Cedar City, Utah|Cedar City]], southern Utah communities led respectively by [[Stake President]]s [[William H. Dame]] and [[Isaac C. Haight]]. Haight and Dame were, in addition, the senior regional military leaders of the Iron Military District of the [[Nauvoo Legion]].<ref name="Walker2008"/>{{rp|p=255}} Over half the employees of the [[Iron County, Utah|Iron County]] iron manufacturing plant were in that militia district.<ref name=IronMission>{{cite encyclopedia|date= 1994b|entry= The Iron Mission |first= Morris A.|last= Shirts|encyclopedia= Utah History Encyclopedia|publisher= [[University of Utah Press]]|isbn= 9780874804256|entry-url= https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/i/IRON_MISSION.shtml}}</ref>

As the party approached, several meetings were held in Cedar City and nearby Parowan by local LDS Church leaders pondering how to implement Young's declaration of martial law.{{sfnp|Shirts|1994|loc=Paragraph 6}} On the afternoon of Sunday, September 6, Haight held his weekly Stake [[High council (Latter Day Saints)|High Council]] meeting after church services and brought up the issue of what to do with the immigrants.{{sfnp|Morrill|1876}} The plan for a Native American massacre was discussed, but not all the Council members agreed it was the right approach.{{sfnp|Morrill|1876}} The Council resolved to take no action until Haight sent a rider, James Haslam,<ref name=CollectedLegal2>{{Cite book |title=Mountain Meadows Massacre: Collected Legal Papers, Selected Trial Records and Aftermath|volume=2 |date=2017 |publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]] |isbn=978-0-8061-5573-9 |editor-last=Turley |editor-first=Richard E. |location=Norman, Oklahoma |editor-last2=Johnson |editor-first2=Janiece L. |editor-last3=Carruth|editor-link=Richard E. Turley |editor-first3=LaJean Purcell|chapter=Preliminary Material and Daniel H. Wells, Laban Morrill, and James Haslam Testimonies|chapter-url=https://mountainmeadowsmassacre.com/wp-content/transcripts/trial2/0-Preliminary-Material-and-Wells-Morrill-and-Haslam-Testimonies.pdf|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mountain_Meadows_Massacre/YzopDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0}}</ref>{{rp|p=3437}} out the next day to carry an express to Salt Lake City (a six-day round trip on horseback) for Young's advice, as Utah did not yet have a [[telegraph]] system.{{sfnp|Morrill|1876}} Following the council, Haight decided to send a messenger Joseph Clewes south to [[John D. Lee]].<ref name=CollectedLegal2/>{{rp|p=3464}}{{sfnp|Morrill|1876}} What Haight told Lee remains a mystery, but considering the timing it may have had something to do with Council's decision to wait for advice from Young.<ref name=MaMM/>{{rp|p=157}}

The dispirited Baker–Fancher party found water and fresh grazing for its livestock after reaching grassy, mountain-ringed Mountain Meadows, a widely known stopover on the old Spanish Trail, in early September. They anticipated several days of rest and recuperation there before the next {{convert|40|mi|km}} would take them out of Utah. On September 7, the party was attacked by [[Nauvoo Legion]] militiamen dressed as Native Americans and some Native American [[Southern Paiute|Paiute]]s.{{sfnp|Shirts|1994|loc=Paragraph 8}} The Baker–Fancher party defended itself by encircling and lowering their wagons, wheels chained together, along with digging shallow trenches and throwing dirt both below and into the wagons, which made a strong barrier. Seven immigrants were killed during the opening attack and buried somewhere within the wagon encirclement. Sixteen more were wounded.{{sfnp|Penrose|Haslam|1885}}<ref name="Brigham Young 1986 p. 257">{{cite book|title=Brigham Young: American Moses|first=Leonard J. |last=Arrington|publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]]|date=1986|page=257|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Brigham_Young/FtmQvP6YPCAC?hl=en&gbpv=0|via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> The attack continued for five days, during which the besieged families had little or no access to freshwater or game food and their ammunition was depleted.{{sfnp|Shirts|1994|loc=Paragraph 8}} Meanwhile, organization among the local Mormon leadership reportedly broke down.{{sfnp|Shirts|1994|loc=Paragraph 6}} Eventually, fear spread among the militia's leaders that some emigrants had caught sight of white men, and had probably discerned the identity of their attackers. This resulted in an order to kill all the emigrants,<ref>{{Cite journal| last=Walker| first=Ronald W.| author-link=Ronald W. Walker| title='Save the emigrants', Joseph Clewes on the Mountain Meadows Massacre| journal=[[BYU Studies]]| volume=42| issue=1| year=2003| page=150| url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3604&context=byusq| quote= ...it was made known by Higbee that the emigrants were to be wiped out.}}</ref> with the exception of small children.<ref name=MaMM>{{Cite book |title=Massacre at Mountain Meadows |url=https://archive.org/details/massacreatmounta00walk_491 |url-access=limited |last1=Walker |first1=Ronald W. |last2=Turley |first2=Richard E.|author2-link=Richard E. Turley |last3=Leonard |first3=Glen M. |year=2008 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-516034-5}}</ref>{{rp|pp=174, 178–180}}

{{Panorama|image=File:MountainMeadowsByPhilKonstantin-Reduced.jpg |height=160 |caption=Panorama of the area in 2009<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://americanindian.net/utah2009/mtmeadows/index.html|title=Mountain Meadows Massacre Site in Utah by Phil Konstantin|website=americanindian.net}}</ref>}}

===Killings and aftermath===
{{Main|Killings and aftermath of the Mountain Meadows Massacre}}

{{multiple image |direction=horizontal |align=center |total_width=660
|header={{larger|Four of the nine [[Nauvoo Legion|Nauvoo Legion militiamen]] indicted in 1874 for murder or conspiracy}}<br />(''Not shown:'' William H. Dame • William C. Stewart • Ellott Willden • Samuel Jukes • George Adair, Jr.)
|image1=JohnDoyleLee.jpg
|caption1='''[[John D. Lee]]''' - Only suspect convicted and executed. Constable, judge, [[Indian Agent]]. Lee conspired in advance with Haight; led initial siege; falsely offered emigrants safe passage; led unwitting train of victims to their surprise execution.
|image2=Isaac Haight.jpg
|caption2='''[[Isaac C. Haight]]'''— [[Stake (Latter Day Saints)#Stake officers|Stake President]], battalion commander, director of Deseret Iron Company.<ref name=IronMission/>
|image3=John H. Higbee.jpg
|caption3='''John H. Higbee''' - Accused by Lee and others of giving the command to begin the killings.{{sfnp|Lee|1877|p=236}} Higbee later disavowed responsibility and blamed Lee for the massacre.{{sfnp|Bagley|2002|pp=326–329}}
|image4=Philip Klingensmith.jpg
|caption4='''Philip Klingensmith'''- a [[Bishop (Latter Day Saints)|Bishop]] in the church and a [[private (rank)|private]] in the militia. Participated in the killings. After disaffiliation from the LDS Church he [[Turn state's evidence|turned state's evidence]] against his fellow conspirators.
}}
On Friday, September 11, 1857, two militiamen approached the Baker–Fancher party wagons with a white flag and were soon followed by [[Indian Agent]] and militia officer [[John D. Lee]]. Lee told the battle-weary emigrants that he had negotiated a truce with the Paiutes. Under Mormon protection, the wagon-train members would be escorted safely back to Cedar City, {{convert|36|mi|km}} away, in exchange for turning all of their livestock and supplies over to the Native Americans.{{sfnp|Shirts|1994|loc=Paragraph 9}} Accepting this offer, the emigrants were led out of their fortification, with the adult men being separated from the women and children. The men were paired with a militia escort and when the signal was given,{{sfnp|Lee|1877|p=236}} the militiamen turned and shot the male members of the Baker–Fancher party standing by their side. The women and children were then ambushed and killed by more militia that were hiding in nearby bushes and ravines. Members of the militia were sworn to secrecy. A plan was set to blame the massacre on the Native Americans.

[[Image:Image-Nancy Sephrona Huff.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Survivor Nancy Saphrona Huff (4) was taken away along with her family's possessions by John Willis to reside at his house until she was returned to relatives in Arkansas two years later.<ref name=Vengeance/>{{rp|p=80}}]]

The militia did not kill small children who were deemed too young to relate what had happened. Nancy Huff, one of the seventeen survivors and just over four years old at the time of the massacre, recalled in an 1875 statement that an eighteenth survivor was killed directly in front of the other children. "At the close of the massacre there was eighteen children still alive, one girl, some ten or twelve years old, they said was too big and could tell, so they killed her, leaving seventeen."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Huff Cates |first1=Nancy S. |title=The Mountain Meadow Massacre. Statement of one of the Few Survivors. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/85240667/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |newspaper=[[Daily Arkansas Gazette]] |access-date=September 13, 2021 |date=September 1, 1875}}</ref> The survivors were taken in by local Mormon families.{{sfnp|Bagley|2002|p=56|ps=:"Without a Name of a Home –John M. Higbee"}} Seventeen of the children were later reclaimed by the U.S. Army and returned to relatives in Arkansas.{{sfnp|Brooks|1991|pp=101–105}} The treatment of these children while they were held by the Mormons is uncertain, but Captain James Lynch's statement in May 1859 said the surviving children were "in a most wretched condition, half starved, half naked, filthy, infested with vermin, and their eyes diseased from the cruel neglect to which they had been exposed."<ref name=CollectedLegal1/>{{rp|p=247}} Lynch's July 1859 affidavit added that they when they first saw the children they had "little or no clothing" and were "covered with filth and dirt".<ref name=CollectedLegal1>{{cite book |editor1-last=Turley |editor1-first=Richard E. |editor1-link=Richard E. Turley|editor2-last=Johnson |editor2-first=Janiece L. |editor3-last=Carruth |editor3-first=LaJean Purcell |title=Mountain Meadows Massacre: Collected Legal Papers, Initial Investigations and Indictments|volume=1 |publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZTopDwAAQBAJ |access-date=September 13, 2021 |date=2017 |isbn=978-0806158952 }}</ref>{{rp|p=250}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60808571/mountain-meadows-massacre-recounting/|title=Mountain Meadows:An Official Accounting of the Atrocity Written in 1859|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|newspaper=[[St. Louis Globe-Democrat]]|date=26 July 1875|volume=1|issue=68|page=1}}</ref>

[[File:Christopher Fancher.jpg|thumb|upright|Survivor Christopher "Kit" Fancher as an adult.]]

[[Leonard J. Arrington]], founder of the Mormon History Association, reports that Brigham Young received the rider, James Haslam, at his office on the same day. When he learned what was contemplated by the militia leaders in Parowan and Cedar City, he sent back a letter stating the Baker–Fancher party was not to be meddled with, and should be allowed to go in peace (although he acknowledged the Native Americans would likely "do as they pleased").<ref name="Brigham Young 1986 p. 257"/><ref name=BYletter/> Young's letter arrived two days too late, on September 13, 1857.

The livestock and personal property of the Baker–Fancher party, including women's jewelry, clothing and bedstuffs were distributed or auctioned off to Mormons.<ref name="King"/><ref>{{Cite news| last=Klingensmith| first=Philip | title=Mountain Meadows Massacre, Affidavit of Philip Klingensmith| editor-last=Toohy| editor-first=Dennis J.| newspaper=Corinne Journal Reporter|date=September 24, 1872 | location=Corinne, Utah | volume=5| issue=252| pages=1| url=http://udn.lib.utah.edu/u?/corinne,5359| access-date=February 11, 2019| via=[[University of Utah]]}}</ref> Some of the surviving children saw clothing and jewelry that had belonged to their dead mothers and sisters subsequently being worn by Mormon women, and the journalist J.H. Beadle said that jewelry taken from Mountain Meadows was seen in Salt Lake City.{{sfnp|Bagley|2002|pp=174–175}}

===Investigations and prosecutions===
{{Main|Investigations and prosecutions relating to the Mountain Meadows Massacre}}

An early investigation was conducted by Brigham Young,<ref name="Brigham Young 1986 p. 257"/> who interviewed John D. Lee on September 29, 1857. In 1858, Young sent a report to the Commissioner of [[Bureau of Indian Affairs|Indian Affairs]] stating that the massacre was the work of Native Americans. The [[Utah War]] delayed any investigation by the U.S. federal government until 1859, when Jacob Forney and U.S. Army [[Brevet (military)|Brevet]] Major [[James Henry Carleton]] conducted investigations.<ref name=Forney-1859>{{Cite news |last=Forney |first=J. |title=Kirk Anderson Esq |newspaper=The Valley Tan |volume=1 |issue=28 |date=May 10, 1859 |page=2 |url=https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=21087086|via=[[University of Utah]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | last=Forney |first=J. |title=Visit of the Superintendent of Indian Affairs to Southern Utah |newspaper=[[Deseret News]] |volume=9 |issue=10 |date=May 11, 1859 |page=1 |url=https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2588248|via=[[University of Utah]]}}</ref> In Carleton's investigation, at Mountain Meadows he found women's hair tangled in sage brush and the bones of children still in their mothers' arms.<ref name = "Fisher">{{cite web |last1=Fisher |first1=Alyssa |title=The Mountain Meadows Massacre |url=http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/massacre/meadows.html |website=Archaeology |publisher=[[Archaeological Institute of America]] |access-date=February 4, 2019 |date=September 16, 2003}}</ref> Carleton later said it was "a sight which can never be forgotten." After gathering up the skulls and bones of those who had died, Carleton's troops buried them and erected a [[cairn]] and cross.<ref name = "Fisher"/>

Carleton interviewed a few local Mormon settlers and Paiute Native American chiefs and concluded that there was Mormon involvement in the massacre. He issued a report in May 1859, addressed to the U.S. Assistant Adjutant-General, setting forth his findings. Jacob Forney, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Utah, also conducted an investigation that included visiting the region in the summer of 1859. Forney retrieved many of the surviving children of massacre victims who had been housed with Mormon families and gathered them up for transportation to their relatives in Arkansas. Forney concluded that the Paiutes did not act alone and the massacre would not have occurred without the white settlers,<ref name=Forney-1859/> and Carleton report to the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] called the mass killings a "heinous crime",{{sfnp|Carleton|1902}} blaming both local and senior church leaders for the massacre.

In March 1859, Judge [[John Cradlebaugh]], a federal judge brought into the territory after the Utah War, convened a grand jury in [[Provo, Utah|Provo]] concerning the massacre, but the jury declined any indictments.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cradlebaugh |first=John |author-link=John Cradlebaugh |title=Charge (Orally delivered by Hon. John Cradlebaugh to the Grand Jury, Provo, Tuesday, March 8, 1859) |url= http://udn.lib.utah.edu/u?/valleytan,553 |page=3 |editor-last=Anderson |editor-first=Kirk |newspaper=The Valley Tan |date=March 15, 1859 |volume=1 |issue=20 |via=[[University of Utah]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Cradlebaugh |first=John |author-link=John Cradlebaugh |title=Discharge of the Grand Jury |url=http://udn.lib.utah.edu/u?/valleytan,632 |pages=3 |editor-last=Anderson |editor-first=Kirk |newspaper=The Valley Tan |date=March 29, 1859 |volume=1 |issue=22 |via=[[University of Utah]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |editor-last=Carrington |editor-first=Albert |editor-link=Albert Carrington |title=The Court & the Army |newspaper=[[Deseret News]] |date=April 6, 1859 |volume=9 |issue=5 |page=2 |url=http://udn.lib.utah.edu/u?/deseretnews2,7309 |via=[[University of Utah]]}}</ref> Nevertheless, Cradlebaugh conducted a tour of the Mountain Meadows area with a military escort.{{sfnp|Bagley|2002|p=225}} He attempted to arrest John D. Lee, Isaac Haight, and John Higbee, who fled before they could be found.{{sfnp|Bagley|2002|p=226}} Cradlebaugh publicly charged Brigham Young as an instigator to the massacre and therefore an "accessory before the fact".{{sfnp|Bagley|2002|p=225}} Possibly as a protective measure against the mistrusted federal court system, Mormon territorial probate court judge [[Elias Smith (Mormon)|Elias Smith]] arrested Young under a territorial warrant, perhaps hoping to divert any trial of Young into a friendly Mormon territorial court.{{sfnp|Bagley|2002|p=234}} Apparently because no federal charges ensued, Young was released.{{sfnp|Bagley|2002|p=225}}

[[File:John D. Lee pre-execution photo.png|thumb|left|The scene at Lee's execution by [[Capital punishment in Utah#Method|Utah firing squad]] on March 23, 1877. Lee is seated, next to his coffin.]]
[[File:Justice at last.jpg|thumb|upright|1877 article on [[John D. Lee]]'s execution.<ref>{{Cite news |date=14 April 1877 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_leslies-weekly_1877-04-07_44_1123/page/n20/mode/1up |title=Justice at Last! Execution of John D. Lee for Complicity in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.|work=[[Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper]]|volume=44|issue=1124|via=[[Internet Archive]]|page=107}}</ref>]]

Further investigations were cut short by the [[American Civil War]] in 1861,.{{sfnp|Brooks|1991|p=133}} The U.S. posted bounties of $5000&nbsp;[[USD]] ({{Inflation|US|5000|1870|r=-2|fmt=eq}}{{Inflation/fn|US}}) each for the capture of Haight, Higbee, Stewart, and Philip Klingensmith. Dame, Klingensmith, Ellott Willden, and George Adair Jr. were indicted and arrested while warrants to pursue the arrests of four others who had gone into hiding (Haight, Higbee, William C. Stewart, and Samuel Jukes) were being obtained. Klingensmith escaped prosecution by agreeing to testify.<ref>{{Cite web |url= https://library.utahtech.edu/special_collections/Juanita_Brooks_lectures/2002.html | title=Tragedy at Mountain Meadows Massacre: Toward a Consensus Account and Time Line|publisher=[[Utah Tech University]]}}</ref> Brigham Young [[excommunication|excommunicated]] some participants, including Haight and Lee, from the LDS Church in 1870. Philip Klingensmith had been a [[Bishop (Latter Day Saints)|bishop]] but then had [[ex-Mormon|left the church]] and moved to [[Nevada]] by the time of his arrest.{{sfnp|Briggs|2006|p=315}}{{sfnp|Bagley|2002|p=242}}

Lee was arrested on November 7, 1874.<ref>{{cite news|title=John D. Lee Arrested|newspaper=[[Deseret News]]|date=November 18, 1874|page=16|via=[[University of Utah]]|url=https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/desnews3/id/102835/|volume=23|issue=42}}</ref> His first trial began on July 23, 1875, in [[Beaver, Utah|Beaver]], before a jury of eight Mormons and four non-Mormons.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Lee Trial|newspaper=[[Deseret News]]|date= July 28, 1875|page=5}}</ref> One of Lee's defense attorneys was [[Enos D. Hoge]], a former territorial supreme court justice.<ref>{{cite book|first=Orson F. |last=Whitney|author-link= Orson F. Whitney|title=Popular History of Utah|date=1916|page=305|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Popular_History_of_Utah/6HkUAAAAYAAJ?hl=en|via=[[Google Books]]|publisher=[[Deseret News]]}}</ref> The trial led to a [[hung jury]] on August 5, 1875. Lee's second trial began September 13, 1876, before an all-Mormon jury. The prosecution called Daniel Wells, Laban Morrill, Joel White, Samuel Knight, Samuel McMurdy, Nephi Johnson, and Jacob Hamblin.{{sfnp|Lee|1877|pp=317–378}} Lee also stipulated, against advice of counsel, that the prosecution be allowed to re-use the depositions of Young and Smith from the previous trial.{{sfnp|Lee|1877|pp=302–303}} Lee called no witnesses in his defense,{{sfnp|Lee|1877|p=378}} and was convicted.

Lee was entitled under Utah Territorial statute to choose the method of his execution from three possible options: hanging, firing squad, or decapitation. At sentencing, Lee chose to be executed by firing squad.<ref>{{cite news|title=Territorial Dispatches: The Sentence of Lee|newspaper=[[Deseret News]]|date=October 18, 1876|page=4}}</ref> In his final words before his sentence was carried out at Mountain Meadows on March 23, 1877, Lee said that he was a scapegoat for others involved.{{sfnp|Lee|1877|pp=225–226}} Brigham Young stated that Lee's fate was just, but it was not a sufficient [[blood atonement]], given the enormity of the crime.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Young |first1=Brigham|author-link=Brigham Young |date=April 30, 1877 |title=Interview with Brigham Young |url=http://udn.lib.utah.edu/u?/deseretnews3,150800 |via=Utah Digital Newspapers, J. Willard Marriott Library, [[University of Utah]] |work=[[Deseret News|The Deseret News]] |access-date=February 4, 2019 |quote=[After being asked by the interviewer if he believed in blood atonement, Young replied] "I do, and I believe that Lee has not half atoned for his great crime"}}</ref>