Blood atonement, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the Death Penalty in Utah

John D. Lee being executed

After John D. Lee was convicted for the mass shooting known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre, he was sentenced to death. He was executed by a firing squad, thus his blood was spilt on the ground.
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On May 5, 1877 Deseret News interviewed Prophet Brigham Young.
Deseret News: “Do you believe in Blood Atonement?”
Brigham Young: “I do, and I believe that Lee has not half atoned for his great crime. I believe that he who sheds the blood of man willfully, by man shall his blood be shed. In other words, capital punishment…should be done by the shedding of blood instead of by hanging.”
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Utah is the only state besides Nevada to have ever used the firing squad.
Of the 44 executions enacted by Utah (before the national moratorium in 1972) 38 were by firing squad.
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Blood Atonement is a disputed doctrine in the history of Mormonism, under which the atonement of Jesus does not redeem an eternal sin. To atone for an eternal sin, the sinner should be killed in a way that allows his blood to be shed upon the ground as a sacrificial offering, so he does not become a son of perdition.
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This church has denied the doctrine since 1889 calling it a "fiction" and a "theoretical principle" that had never been implemented in the LDS Church.
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And yet, Mormon Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith stated: “This law granted unto the condemned murderer the privilege of choosing for himself whether he die by hanging, or whether he be shot—and thus have his blood shed in harmony with the law of God—and thus atone…for the death of his victim.”
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In his 1st ed. of the book Mormon Doctrine, Mormon Apostle Bruce R. McConkie wrote that that because blood atonement requires the "spilling of blood upon the ground" and thus execution by firing squad was superior to execution by hanging.
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In 2004, Utah mad lethal injection the only option for execution. This was reversed in 2015.
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Utah, South Carolina, & Oklahoma are the only states currently allowing firing squads. In OK this is allowed ONLY if other options are all declared unconstitutional