Baskin says that blood atonement for apostates must be a doctrine of the church.
"Mormons and Citizenship," Deseret Weekly 39, no. 24, (December 7, 1889): 17
Baskin said he asked in the name of all that was holy how the leaders of the Church would speak to the people as they did unless those people had taken covenants and knew what was meant by covenant breakers. He further referred to blood atonement and said it must be a doctrine of the Church. He declared that apostasy from the Church was punishable by death.