JDL says the members of the church wanted him to die to atone for their sins.
John D. Lee, Mormonism Unveiled; or, The Life and Confessions of the Late Mormon Bishop, John D. Lee (St. Louis: Bryan, Brand & Co., 1877), 268
So they talked to me, the leaders of the Church and its prominent men, all telling me the same thing, while at the same time those low, deceitful, treacherous, cowardly, dastardly sycophants and serfs had combined to fasten the rope around my neck. No doubt they thought they could lull me to sleep, until they could kill and make a scape-goat of me, to atone for the sins of the whole Church, which fully endorsed this treacherous treatment, as has been established by the oaths given by the false, treacherous, sneaking witnesses who came on the stand by order and command of the Church, to consummate the vile scheme formed for my destruction.