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Show GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY f 519 taken hence to a place of confinement within this Territory; that you there be safely kept in confinement until Friday, the 26th day of January, 1877 ; that between the hours of 10 o'clock A. M. and 3 o'clock P. M. of that day, you be taken from your place of confine-ment and in this district publicly shot until you are dead; and may Almighty God have mercy on your soul ! " But an appeal was taken, and the Supreme Court of Utah sus-pended the execution. The case was heard in that court, and an able opinion delivered by Justice Philip H. Emerson, fully sustaining the court below, and concurred in by all the justices. The mandate di-rected the Second District Court to fix a new date for execution, and Judge Boreman named Friday, March 23, 1877. There was much talk of an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, but none was taken, though Congress has granted this. privilege in murder cases to Utah alone of all the Territories. Still Lee did not give up all hope. There are mysterious hints of a secret understanding be-tween him and the district attorney, by which the latter was to secure a pardon or commutation in return for evidence that would convict all the others guilty of complicity in the massacre. Lee's wife, Rachel, shared his confinement to the last, and Lee worked steadily on his confession. But if there was any such agreement, it was set aside, and the convicted man at last resigned all hope. He then wrote out a full confession, and gave it to the district attorney ; but the latter has only published such portions as would in no way interfere with his plans for convicting others. A previous confession written by Lee, and delivered to his attorney, W. " VV. Bishop, Esq., has also been pub-lished the lawyer having agreed with Lee to sell the paper to the press, take his fee therefrom, and pay over the remainder to Rachel. In these confessions Lee at last tells nearly all the truth, still shield-ing himself, however, and denying any actual killing. I append the most important sections : My name is John Doyle Lee. I was born September 6, 1812, at Kaskaskia, Kandolph County, Illinois. My mother belonged to the Catholic Church, and I was christened in the faith. My parents died while I was still a child, and iny boyhood was one of trial and hardship. I married Agatha Ann Woolsey in 1833, and moved to Fayette County, Illinois, on Sucker Creek. There I became wealthy. In 1836 I became acquainted with some traveling Mormon preachers. I bought, read, and believed * Jie Book of Mormon. I sold my property in Illinois, and moved to Far West, in Missouri, in 1837, where I joined the Mormon Church, and became intimately acquainted with Joseph Smith, Brig-ham Young, and other leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints. I was subsequently initiated into the order of Danites at its first formation. The mem-bers of tnis order were solemnly sworn to obey all the orders of the priesthood of the Mormon Cnurch, to d, o any and all things as commanded. The " destroying angels " |