Ahead of execution in Utah, death penalty opponents speak out

Abe Bonowitz, a national advocate against the death penalty, asked a group of Utahns to name the words carved into the face of the U.S. Supreme Court building.

“Equal justice under the law,” a couple audience members said quietly as they were sitting in the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church’s parish center on Sunday. They were there for a public conversation about the next steps for those opposed to the execution scheduled to take place this week in Utah.

“If you have ever had any dealings with our legal system, criminal or civil, what you know is that we don’t have equal justice under,” said Bonowitz. He said he thinks money, power and politics influence the application of the death penalty.

Bonowitz spoke alongside Randy Gardner, brother of convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner, SueZann Bosler, a victim-survivor whose father was murdered, Charles Keith, a man whose brother was formerly on death row, and civil rights activist Jeanetta Williams at an event organized by a local parishioner.

With Taberon Honie’s execution scheduled for very early Thursday morning, these anti-death penalty advocates came to Utah for a final protest. Honie has exhausted his appeals. Family members of Claudia Benn, the woman murdered by Honie, have voiced support for the state moving forward with his execution.

Bonowitz said there is no doubt Honie is guilty of murder.

Honie was convicted of the aggravated murder of Benn, his ex-girlfriend’s mother, killing her while Benn’s three grandchildren, including Honie’s daughter, 2, were inside the home. He also sexually abused one of the children.

Bonowitz explained his opposition to the death penalty saying it is unfairly applied and many people on death row experienced abuse, neglect or the harmful impact of addiction when they were children.

Gardner said he knew his brother Ronnie Lee Gardner was guilty of murder. He said he opposes the death penalty because of the collateral damage it brought to his family and he thinks it is morally wrong to take a life, including through the death penalty.

Benn’s family supports execution

Not everyone feels that way.

Benn’s family members pleaded with the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole during a July hearing to allow the execution to move forward. They said it was unfair they could not call or see Benn anymore because of Honie’s actions.

“I can’t pick up a phone and call her anymore,” said Benita Yracheta, Benn’s daughter. “I can’t wish her a happy birthday or Mother’s Day. I have to go to the cemetery for holidays, Mother’s Day, her birthday. I go down on the anniversary of her death. We can’t make no more memories with her, no more pictures with her. We just have to live with the memories we have.”

Trevia Wall, Benn’s niece, said Honie earned his sentence. “We did not ask for you to take my aunt the way you did. Nor did we ask you to hurt the girls. You did all that. And again, this sentence is what I feel is best and is what you’ve earned.”

A Deseret News/Hinckley poll from 2021 found 51% of Utahns support keeping the death penalty, while 40% said they wanted to do away with the law and 8% said they weren’t sure.

Tom Brunker and Andrew Peterson, two Utah lawyers with experience in the state’s attorney general’s office, have voiced support for capital punishment because of public safety and because of the idea that death penalty allows individuals to express moral outrage in a legal way.

“Those sentenced to death in Utah exemplify this ‘moral outrage’ justification. In addition, to those who have killed while in prison or trying to escape, the killers on Utah’s death row did one or more of the following: tortured their victims; raped their victims; kidnapped their victims; killed their victims in their own homes; or killed their victims to keep them from testifying about the other crimes perpetrated against them,” wrote Brunker and Peterson. ”They mostly targeted victims who were extremely vulnerable. And most had very lengthy criminal histories.”

Forgiveness and uncertainty

For some who oppose the death penalty, faith is a motivating factor. That was true for SueZann Bosler.

Bosler grew up in Florida where she and her family lived adjacent to a church — her father, Reverend Billy Bosler, led the congregation. When she and her father were home one day, she heard a knock at the door.

Her father went to answer the door and she heard him making unusual sounds, so she walked over to him. That is when she saw James Bernard Campbell stabbing her father. She was stabbed multiple times, too, including twice on the side of her head.

Bosler began a long road to recovery at the hospital and soon learned her father died. When Campbell’s trial began, she remembered a conversation with her father years prior where she asked him about his view on the death penalty.

“He answered every question clearly,” said Bosler. “Finally, he said, ‘SueZann, if anyone were ever to murder or kill me, I would still not want that person to get the death penalty.’”

To honor her father’s wishes, Bosler began fighting against the death penalty for Campbell, though she also supported a guilty sentence. She said she has forgiven Campbell for his crimes.

“If it was an eye for an eye in this world, we would all be blind,” said Bosler. “... We’re all imperfect. We all make mistakes.”

Bosler, who worn a shirt with a quote against the death penalty from Pope John Paul II, also pulled out a card from her pocket while she was speaking. She said the card is her declaration of life, requesting that if she dies by violent crime, no matter how heinous, she does not want the person responsible for doing so to receive capital punishment.

“I’m not just saying the words, I mean the words,” said Bosler.

For Charles Keith, his brother’s conviction and an experience with God drove him to advocate against the death penalty. Keith’s brother is Kevin Keith, an Ohio man convicted on three counts of aggravated murder.

Kevin Keith was sentenced to die after his conviction. But as he and his lawyers appealed, Ohio governor Ted Strickland commuted his sentence to life without parole. Keith has unsuccessfully appealed his sentence a number of times and his case was the subject of Kim Kardashian’s podcast “The System.”

After his brother was convicted and sentenced, Charles Keith said he cried out to God about what happened. And he said God told him to look at the trial of Jesus, how unfair it was — and that moment shaped Keith.

“He told me, ‘If you believe in me, believe in me, and we’ll do something with those tears,” said Keith. He started studying the Bible to look for a religion that would help him the most with his brother.

“I found out it was all of them. It was all of them,” said Keith. “The Quakers, the Mormons, the Catholics, the street people. Who do you think Jesus would not save? I know there’s a lot of us that we wouldn’t save somebody, but who would Jesus reject?”

Keith said his faith motivates him to stand against the death penalty along with knowing innocent people have died and still may die in the future as a result of wrongful convictions.

He also knows what it is like to have a family member murdered.

One of Keith’s other brothers was murdered. Some of Keith’s family members initially wanted to see the death penalty used in that case, but after a discussion they changed their mind.

When thinking about the death penalty, “imagine that was you,” said Keith.

Bonowitz said he has received a lot of support from the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City with his advocacy efforts. The Catholic Church has taken a strong stance against the death penalty and led out in national conversations about it.

But religious people in the U.S. find themselves on different sides of the issue.

A 2021 Pew Research Center survey , the latest on this subject from the polling group, found 62% of U.S. religiously affiliated adults supported the death penalty for people convicted of murder.

Of all religious groups, Black Protestants and Catholics show the highest opposition to the death penalty, but a majority of all religious groups surveyed support capital punishment.

Not all religious groups in the U.S. or the world oppose the death penalty as a matter of doctrine. Some have taken neutral stances, others have taken permissive stances toward it.

Another execution coming up in Utah

The conversation about the death penalty in Utah will continue as another execution could be coming up.

Ralph Menzies, who murdered Maurine Hunsaker, in 1986 has a competency hearing set for September, where the court will decide if the state can move forward with Menzies’ execution.

Hunsaker’s living son Matt has fought against repealing the death penalty for several years and prays each year the Legislature will not take it up again. If Menzies’ execution moves forward, it is possible advocates will pay Utah another visit.

Williams, a candidate for Utah House District 26, promised one of the first things she would do if she is elected is refile a bill to abolish the death penalty.

One participant at the meeting said she did not want to wait until there is another execution to meet about it and find ways to fight the death penalty. Bonowitz said he is looking to build a Utah-based group against the death penalty.

But in the meantime, he said communities of faith should rally to support families of victims and also families of the accused.