For anyone who wishes to review the History Record on this point please refer to the following Sunstone Symposium Discussions on the topic: SL01371, Violence on the Mormon Frontier: Fact or Fiction? PANEL: Polly Aird, Willam Bagley, Edward Lyman, D. Michael Quinn Elder Bruce R. McConkie insisted: 'There is not one historical instance of so-called blood atonement in this dispensation," yet recent researchers have concluded that Brigham Young's support of "holy murder" helped create a "culture of violence" that promoted crimes ranging from individual murders to massacres. The Encyclopedia of Mormonism characterized blood atonement as a "rhetorical device" that "has never been practiced by the Church at any time." Yet historian Juanita Brooks concluded blood atonement was a "literal and terrible reality." What was the actual level of religiously motivated violence in frontier Mormonism? https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/audio/SL01371.mp3 SL03363, The other massacres that could have occurred By Edward Leo Lyman, with Todd M. Compton commenting In the early autumn of 1857, many Southern Paiute Indians and some fanatical Latter-day Saint militiamen came to believe they had permission to attack and loot not just the Fancher-Baker Party, whose members became the victims of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, but several other emigrant groups then also traveling through southern Utah territory. This paper focuses on the efforts (some might even be considered heroic) of Amasa M. Lyman, Jacob Hamblin, and Pauvant Ute Chief Kanosh in Mormon Quest for Utah Statehood and San permission to attack and loot not just the Fancher-Baker Party, whose members became the victims of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, but several other emigrant groups. https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/audio/SL03363.mp3 SL88129, Blood Atonement, Capital Crimes and Mormon Murders By C Jess Groesbeck, with Owen Clark commenting https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/audio/SL88129.mp3 And this link will take the reader to a series of original source quotes from this period of LDS Church History: http://www.concernedchristians.com/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=42&func=view&id=75028&catid=530 By reviewing these resources I believe that the investigator will discover that the historical record on this period of LDS Church History is clear, compelling, and well documented. Unfortunately Elder McConkie's statement does not hold under the weight of historical scrutiny - though one might wish that it did.

You will note that most or all of these examples deal with the 'radical' fundamentalists groups who are NOT part of the true church. Joseph Smith never advocated this doctrine.

I think there is a misunderstanding of blood atonement really is. LdS believe that certain grievous sins can't be fully repented of during mortality. This gave rise to letting the offender choose capital punishment as a means to enter the spirit world sooner, and thus speed up the repentance process. In all cases, it had to be requested by the offender - the murders performed by "avenging angel" groups were not blood atonement. Blood atonement does not call for avenging the blood of the martyrs.