History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

TRIAL OF LEE. 565
tragedy, from the day when the emigrants left Cedar
City until the butchery at Mountain Meadows. _
avowed that Higbee and Haight played a prominent
part in the massacre, which, he declared, was committed
in obedience to military orders, but said nothing
as to the complicity of the higher dignitaries of
the church, by whom it was believed that these orders
were issued.* 6 The last was the very point that the
prosecution desired to establish, its object, compared
with which the conviction of the accused was but a
minor consideration, being to get at the inner facts
of the case. The district attorney 46 refused, there-
He
fore, to accept the confession, on the ground that it
was not made in good faith. Finally the case was
brought to trial on the 23d of July, and the result
was that the jury, of whom eight were Mormons,
failed to agree, after remaining out of court for three
days. 47 Lee was then remanded for a second trial,
which was held before the district court at Beaver
City between the 13th and 20th of September, 1876,
Judge Boreman again presiding. 48
45 Portions of this first confession will be found in Id., 8-9; S. F. Call,
July 21, 1875; S. F. Bulletin, July 21, 1875.
46 William C. Carey, who was assisted by R. N. Baskin. Sutherland and
Bates, Judge Hoge, Wells Spicer, John McFarlane, and W. W. Bishop appeared
for the prisoner. Sutherland and Bates were the attorneys of the first
presidency.
47 For names of jurors, see The Lee Trial, 11. On p. 52, it is stated that
the foreman, who was a gentile, sided with the Mormons, the three remaining
geu tiles being in favor of a conviction. In The Lee Trial, published in pamphlet
form by the S. L. Daily Tribune- Reporter (S. L. City, 1875), we have a fair
account of the proceedings at the first trial, except that the publishers seem
unduly anxious to cast the onus of the charge on the first presidency. Other
reports will be found in the files of the Deseret News, commencing July 28,
1875; Beadle's Western Wilds, 504-13; Young's Wife No. 19, 256-60; the Elko
Independent, Aug. 7, 1875; the Helena Independent, July 29, 1875.
48 For names of jurors, see Deseret News, Sept. 20, 1876. Lee had been cut
off from the church in 1871, and among anti-Mormon writers it is stated that
the church authorities now withdrew all assistance and sympathy, and determined
to sacrifice him. Lee's Mormonism Unmiled, 32; Beadle's Western
Wilds, 515. In his introduction to the Mormonism Unvailed, W. W. Bishop
says that the attorneys for the defendant were furnished with a list of jurymen,
and that the list was examined by a committee of Mormons, who marked
with a dash those who would convict, with an asterisk those who would probably
not convict, and with two asterisks those who would certainly not convict.
The names of the jurors accepted were, of course, marked with two
asterisks, but they found Lee guilty, as directed by the church authorities.