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Show JOHN D. LEE. Tiiei Death Sentence Pronounced. The Moody Hero of M..iin(ain Jleadows To He Shot on January 20, 1S77. Judge Bore man Goes Outside of the Record to Insult and Malign People. "Leo rr tiers to be Shot. Beaver, October 10. Tho court met at 0 o' cluck a.m. After the reading of tho minutes, John D. Lee being in court, Judge Bore in an proceeded to pars sentence of death upon him. Judj;e B. John D. Lee, have, you auything to say why seutenco of death should not bo pronounced against you T Lee, in a firm voice replied I have not. Judge B. You, John D. Lee. the prisoner at the bar, have, by tho verdict of a jury, been found guilty of murder iu the first degree. From the evidence- beforo them, the jury could not have done otherwise than to find you guilty. . The proof was clear and positive. This is your second trial. At tho trial lt year the evidences of your guilt wore plain, but three-fourths of tho Jury, for somo cause, wero for your acquittal. The testimony adduced on the present pres-ent trial is mainly from witnesses that con id not then be obtained, but this evidence, for some cause, baa been unsealed, and they, iho- witnesses, wit-nesses, are found ready in your cise to tell what part you played in tho creat crime. Thev. will hereafter have opportunity of telling what others diet to aid in planning and executing it. The facta that the evidence evi-dence was not brought out. on this trial to criminate some other leaders does not show that such evidence does not exist. Much of such testimony testi-mony came out on tho former trial, and the public, in endeavoring to reach the bottom of the whole mutter, will uot confine itself to tho evidence brought out on this trinl alone. The evidence at both (rials will be considered together, and according to the evidence at the former trial, the massacre seems to have been the result re-sult of a vast conspiracy, extending , from Salt Lake city to tho bloody I field, and the emigrants wero plun. dered all along this line oi travel. ; Nowhere were the citizens permitted to give or sell them auything to sustain sus-tain life, either to man or animal, although they wero sorely in need thereof, and the men who actually participated in the bloody deed wero not the only guilty ones. Although the evidence shows plainly that you wero a willing participant in tho massacre, yet both trials, taken together, to-gether, show that others, and some high in authority, inaugurated and decided upon the wholesale slaughter of the emigrants; that the slaughter took place nineteen years ago, and Irom that time down to the present term of the court, there has been, throughout the territory, a persistent and determined opposition to an investigation in-vestigation of the massacre. Shortly after the slaughter, Judge Cradls-baugh Cradls-baugh sought to have it investigated, but he, tor his efforts in that direction, whs viilified beyond measure, and the ruling powers among the people caused Judge Cradlebaugh's eflorts to be entirely unavailing. The same policy has thwarted every eflort, Irom that day to Ibis, to bring the guilty to justice. At tho former trial last year, tho whoie power and influence of those who are supported to have had something to do with the dreadful crime were against your conviction. This opposition to the investigation was in strict accordance with their settled policy of hostility, and to putting the blame of this crime where it belongs, but their efforts to smother and crush out the investigation were found to a?sisl or avail thoui no longer. It was impossible impos-sible to longer delay the day when tho inside facts of the conspiracy should be brought out, and they have suddenly changed their policy, and seem now to bo consenting to your death. I do not comprehend why this is so, unless they have hope, by your conviction, to appease the public indignation throughout the country, and that your conviction and death would end the further investigation of the matter. But in this they are greatly mistaken. This dread crime will not down in your conviction, but it is the beginning of tho end. The demands of justice will not be sacrificed. sacri-ficed. They, the gniity leaders in planning and executing that crime, are known, and will be brought to the bar of justice, and their cases investigated in-vestigated in the courts and passed upon by an impartial jury. It gives me no pleasure to say anything iu reference to the awful deed in which you wero a willing participant. partici-pant. You. and all those who plotted this 'deed of blood, or who participated willingly therein,- are no doubt guilty of a great crime, and the inuofieusivo victims, their mouths are closed in this world, will meet and confront you all at the bai of Almighty God, where tLe secrets ot all hearts shall bo made known, and the guilty cannot avoid that tribunal. The world has not sympathy for the perpetrators of so dastardly-and cruel a butchery, and the christian civilization civiliza-tion of our day stands aghast at the long and persistent etlorts to prevent the guilty from being brought to jus-lice, jus-lice, aud the long delay can only be accounted for upon the supposition that tho guilty leaders, in plotting and carrying into executiou this crime, controlled, and still control, the popular will and public sentiment senti-ment in this territory. There is a sympathy for you among some of the people, growirg of the belief that you nave been deserted by ihe parties and the plotters of the crime, and left to bo sacrificed, but yet all good men feel that your conviction is but the proper execution execu-tion of the law. It is painful that any human being should sutler death for any reason, but outraged justice requires it. No one, that know of, connected with the art ministration of the law. takes any pleasure in your death, nor in the death of any one. It is a settled duty which devolves upon thorn in this matter, and they cannot avoid it. In i accordance with the verdict of the liiry, aud the law, it becomes my duly to pass sentence of death upon you, and in doing this the statute requires that you may have the choice if you desire of three different modes of execution, namely, that ot being banned, by shooting, or be heading. If you have any choice or rie-siro in this resect, you can now express it. Here the prisoner asked to be executed exe-cuted by being shot. Lee said 1 would rather be shot. Judge B. As you have made a choice and expressed a desire that you be executed by being shot, it follows that such ahull bo, 'The judgment of the court is, therefore, that you bo taken benco to a place of confinement within this territory, and tint yon I hern bo safely kept in confinement con-finement until Friday, tho 2itlh day of January, 1877; that bulween the hours of 10 o'clock in the forenoon and 3 o'eluek in the alti-mooti of that day you be taken from your placo of confinement, and in this district be publicly shot till you are dead, and may Almighty God have mercy upon ': your eoul. |