Honie execution cost Utah Department of Corrections more than $280,000

It cost over $280,000 for the Utah Department of Corrections to execute Taberon Dave Honie, according to a cost breakdown released Tuesday.

Corrections officials executed Honie by lethal injection Aug. 8 at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City.

"Medical services and supplies" cost an estimated $260,906.58. The vast majority of that — as well as the biggest overall cost of the execution — came from the purchase of pentobarbital. In July, the department indicated in court documents that it was abandoning its original plan to execute Honie using an experimental cocktail consisting of ketamine, fentanyl, and potassium chloride, and instead had purchased doses of pentobarbital for an estimated $200,000.

Other medical supply expenses included IV lines, an EKG monitor and the execution team itself, according to a corrections spokesman.

In addition to medical services and supplies, personnel and overtime for corrections employees cost $10,973.86, while "event expenses" which are described as "supplies and equipment," cost $16,804.85, bringing the total to $288,685.29. Other event expenses included lights and port-a-potties at the free speech zone, road signs, roadblocks and food for officers.

The funds to pay for the execution come from the Utah Department of Corrections general budget. The department does not receive any special additional funds to carry out a death sentence.

The total price released Tuesday does not include the numerous years of appeals and legal costs associated with a death sentence. According to the Death Penalty Information Center : "The death penalty is far more expensive than a system utilizing life-without-parole sentences as an alternative punishment."

Honie, 48, was executed just after midnight on Aug. 8 for the brutal killing of his ex-girlfriend’s mother, 49-year-old Claudia Marie Benn, in front of her three granddaughters on July 9, 1998, in Cedar City. In May 1999, Honie was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to death.