Editing Mountain Meadows Massacre (section)

===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>