Protesters rally against Utah’s first execution in more than a decade

A crowd of about 30 people gathered outside in the dark on a back road nearly two miles outside the Utah State Correctional Facility late Wednesday night. Beginning at 9 p.m. and going past midnight, the crowd — ranging from young children to the elderly — was protesting the execution of death row inmate Taberon Honie, who was executed by lethal injection shortly after midnight on Thursday .

Honie received the death sentence on May 20, 1999. He is one of six inmates on death row in Utah and was found guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s mother, Claudia Benn, in July of 1998.

It is the first execution in the state of Utah since 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad. Now, 14 years later, his brother, Randy Gardner, stood with protesters Wednesday night to oppose Honie’s capital punishment.

“I’m here tonight because I don’t believe in capital punishment whatsoever,” Gardner told the Deseret News. “I think the state has no right in executing our own citizens.” He added that it’s a moral issue and quoted the moral imperative of the Sixth Commandment in the Bible, “Thou shalt not kill.”

Losing a family member to capital punishment is “definitely a club you don’t want to belong to,” Gardner said when asked what advice he would give to the Honie family as they go through this experience. “It’s a terrible thing to go through.” After his brother’s death, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I probably had it from Day 1 (after Ronnie died). I thought I was really tough and could fight it off — I didn’t. I finally had to seek out help and had to go to therapy for a couple years just to get rid of the dreams and the nightmares. ... It’s a terrible thing. It’s so close to my heart, matter of fact, it’s close to my brother’s heart.”

Gardner is on the advisory committee of Death Penalty Action , a nonprofit organization trying to abolish the death penalty in America, and a member of Journey of Hope from Violence to Healing.

Religious leaders advocate for compassion before execution

About 30 minutes before the execution, Deacon Mike Bulson of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City led the crowd in the Hail Mary Prayer.

“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”

Father John Evans, vicar general and moderator of the Curia for the Diocese of Salt Lake City, held a poster in his hand that read, “Life is precious.” He told the Deseret News that to keep society safe, rather than killing criminals, we should be granting them “restorative justice.”

“The criminals have to pay their debt to society, as it’s so commonly said, but they also have to live with the mistakes they’ve made, and hopefully move to wanting forgiveness, wanting healing, not just for them, but for the victims and their families,” Father Evans said. “So there’s a hope that we can do better here and work for that as a society and not just be punitive.”

He added that capital punishment is like returning evil for evil.

“The whole idea that people want the death penalty (because) it’s out of vengeance, sometimes it’s out of a woundedness, but it doesn’t bring healing.”

Michelle Beasley, a parishioner at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Salt Lake City, has been volunteering at Catholic services in prisons and jails for nearly 10 years. She said she helps with gospel lessons and communion with the inmates centered around Christ.

“There are so many times in that chapel that those men and women will say that that’s where they find peace. That’s the one time out of the week where they find joy and acceptance and love and that’s why they keep coming back,” and the reason Beasley said she continues to go after so many years.

“We all screw up, and they’re human,” she said. “They just want to be loved and accepted and forgiven. ... If they’re guilty, they have to still face the consequences. But death should not be one of them.”