Judge Cradlebaugh summed up the case as follows:

I must say that until I commenced the examination of this case, I supposed we were living in a land of liberty—in a land where any person could go to any place where he thought proper to go; I had also thought that we lived in a land of religious toleration, where persons were allowed to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, but the evidence that has been introduced shows, at least, that the people, so far as the Territory of Utah is concerned, do not enjoy those blessings of the Constitution.

It would seem that the people are not only deprived of their liberty religiously, but of that which is guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. If, for example, they fall from the faith of the religious denomination that prevails here, the evidence goes to show that their throats must be cut; if they attempt to leave the country the same thing is to follow; therefore, I think I am right in saying that these blessings of the Constitution do not accrue to this territory.

[When and where, in Utah, has any person's throat been cut, or any one in the least personally injured, or in any way hindered from leaving this Territory, on the grounds of his, her, or their apostasy? Never and nowhere, so far as a long and intimate acquaintance with civil and ecclesiastical territorial affairs gives us reliable information, 'therefore' the Judge's 'I think I am right' is widely at variance with what we are sanguine are the facts upon this point. —ED. NEWS]

. . .

The evidence before the court goes to show that the entire officials, the Bishops, the justice of the peace, and the policemen, were all engaged in murdering the Parrishes or in laying their plans. Some are more directly connected with it than others.

[How differently do persons view the same evidence! We have carefully examined all the evidence furnished by a remarkably accurate phonographic reporter, and can only conclude that 'the evidence before the court goes to show' that Durfee, Potter, and two of the Parrishes got into a row about matters best, if not only, know to themselves, and that Potter and two Parrishes were killed. —ED.]