Not taking into account Graham's inner-conflicts, what would you do with him, assuming you opted to fight the White Legs? Personally, I would have executed him where he stood (or crouched). This is the man who slaughtered New Canaan before salting the earth. He is transforming the beautiful Zion Valley into another destroyed Wasteland. I find it difficult to see why some people (i haven't actually seen this discussed on the forum, so I don't know how many people think this) believe its morally right to allow him to flee.

What I did was allow him to fight for his life, but that was under the circumstances of Graham threatening to turn back into the Malpais Legate. If it were just me and him, I'd have shot him without a thought.

Yea, I agree. Salt upon Wounds is a worthless piece of excrement. LOL He kills without mercy, he doesn't care about anyone living in Zion. They didn't even understand anything about Ulysses and his tribe...

I also allowed him to fight back, for pretty much the same reason as you stated, and for the benefit of the Sorrows.

either shot him down like a dog while hes wimpering or let him flee and live his short life full of fear. Hes made a ton of enemys and either u kill him or break him for fitting punishments. I dont let him fight bc I have no respect for him.

I let him live. I already won. Letting him leave with his tail between his legs is a fitting punishment. Either his leadership will suffer, or his own tribe would blame the defeat on him and kill him. Or in the unlikely case, his tribe learns to leave others alone. (doesn't happen)

Everything after the defeat is for them to decide. The Sorrows and the Dead Horses have learned to fight and survive on their own. And Joshua learns about forgiveness or something.

And before anyone says, "Why let him leave? What if he comes back stronger than before?" The White Legs can't come back stronger than they once were.

They suffered immense casualties at the hand of The Courier and Joshua Graham. The tribes of Zion are now experienced at combat. Their leader's spirit has been broken, which is why Salt starts begging The Courier to reason with Graham to let him live.
And The White Legs can only survive by raiding. They can't farm. There is no evidence that they get food by hunting like nomadic tribes. They don't even have a place to call home. Face it. The White Legs are too weak to fight any other tribes and steal their food. They have been defeated. The only reason to kill Salt-Upon-Wounds is for revenge.

That's the way I see it.

for his crimes i would execute him, hell the courier and joshua had no issues mowing down fifty or so of his mooks along the river. Although he can't do anything once he and his tribe are broken, but i have to think that executing his prevents him from harming anyone else (he could still harm a few lone travelers)

He dies. He needs to pay for his crimes.

I would hand him over to the Dead Horses and The Sorrows. They are the ones who've suffered Salt-Upon-Wounds' wrath. I say let them do what they please with him.

Let him go.

The White Legs get massacred at Great Salt Lake by the 80s which is a far worse fate than having a bullet in your head. Not to mention, it teaches both Joshua and the Sorrows a good lesson. Mercy is an option, and they both need to know that.

He gets executed by Graham. I just can't bring myself to preach to him about forgivness when I kill Benny and various others out of lust for revenge. Though when I'm playing a peacuful character it's freedom for Salty.

But you can't know that will happen. Mercy is an option, but it shouldn't be available for someone such as Salt-Upon-Wounds.Again, you can't know that the White Legs won't reform and come back. Not in their original strength, but as you said the only one they can sustain themselves is via raiding. They will probably get destroyed even if you let Salt go (I've never seen the ending), but the point is that it sends a clear message to the White Legs and there is more of a chance that they will cause damage should he flee than if he is killed. How will allowing their leader (who has committed atrocities all throughout Zion) to walk free break their will anymore than him being executed?
And you could call it vengeance, but men have to be accountable for their actions. Salt doesn't get to walk away after what he's done IMO. Revenge, justice, I don't see the distinction in his case.

The ending is more complex than that.

This isn't about the ending. Look on the situation without the hindsight that the White Legs will definitely get destroyed even if you let him escape.

Okay, Joshua sets Salt-Upon-Wounds free, and the man flees to the Salt Lake. The increased militancy of the Sorrows inevitably increases either way, but it was a valuable lesson that sometimes mercy is an option. Salt-Upon-Wounds deserved to die, but IMHO that would make Joshua no better to kill him like an animal. Joshua is also taught a really important lesson and that the fire within him was stayed at its worse possible point.

This is assuming an ending that actually happens wouldn't happen, though. I think the endslide said something along the lines of "the news reached the 80s that Salt-Upon-Wounds was only a broken shell of his old self, and the 80s took advantage of the opportunity to drive them out of their home and kill them".