‘Conversations,’ press conference part of death penalty protest

Friday, Aug. 16, 2024

Laura Vallejo and Marie Mischel

Intermountain Catholic

SANDY — Shortly after midnight on Aug. 8 the state of Utah executed Taberon Honie by lethal injection. It was the first death sentence carried out by the state in more than 14 years. In the week leading up to the execution, several protests took place in the Salt Lake area, including “Conversations About the Death Penalty,” a presentation on Aug. 4 by representatives of several national organizations that oppose the death penalty. A press conference at the state Capitol also was held; at the end of that Aug. 7 event a petition was presented to a representative  of Gov. Spencer Cox that was addressed to the governor and all members of the Utah Legislature, asking them “to prohibit the imposition of the death penalty for any violation of federal or state law, and for other purposes.”

In addition, a vigil was held Wednesday night near the Utah State Correction Facility in which the execution took place [see left].

The speakers’ event, the press conference and the vigil were organized by Michelle Beasley, a parishioner of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Sandy. Beasley is involved with the diocesan prison ministry and is also a lay ecclesial minster.

Prior to these events, Bishop Oscar A. Solis issued a statement on July 19 asking the Catholic faithful “to stand against this blatant disregard for the sanctity of life, and to urge our senators and representatives to end the cruel and inhumane practice of taking life through state-sanctioned executions. The death penalty does nothing but repay suffering with suffering. It does not provide justice, does not restore dignity, does not make us safer as a society.”

Noting that the inherent dignity of the human person is a core tenet of Catholic teaching, the bishop quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church [2267]: “The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” 

Among those at both the speakers’ event and the press conference were Abraham Bonowitz, head of the Death Penalty Action program; SueZann Bosler, co-founder of Journey of Hope … From Violence to Healing; Charles Keith of Death Penalty Action; and Randy Gardner, whose brother Ronnie Lee Gardner was the last person executed in Utah. Randy Gardner is a member of Death Penalty Action’s advisory committee.

Bonowitz acknowledged that there was no doubt Honie was guilty of the crimes of which he was convicted: the sexual assault and murder of his ex-girlfriend’s mother in the presence of her three grandchildren, including his own 2-year-old daughter. However, the death penalty is unfairly applied, Bonowitz said, and many people on death row experienced abuse, neglect or the harmful impact of addiction when they were children. 

The National Association of Mental Health estimates that 5 percent to 10 percent of death row inmates have serious mental illness.

Gardner said he knew his brother Ronnie Lee Gardner was guilty of murder, but the death penalty is morally wrong, he said. “To take a life, including through the death penalty, is simply not right.”

The death penalty also has negative impacts on the families of both the victims and the perpetrators, he said.

At the press conference, he said the death of his brother caused him to suffer PTSD. “The collateral damage of the death penalty, it’s just not right. It’s not the moral thing, that we should be executing our own citizens,” he said. 

At the speakers’ event, Bosler told her story while wearing a shirt with a quote against the death penalty from Pope John Paul II. She was at home with her father, the Rev. Billy Bosler, when he was attacked and stabbed to death; the perpetrator, James Bernard Campbell, also attacked her. She was stabbed multiple times, including twice in the head. After the man left, she was able to call for help, and the only thing that kept her alive was the idea that her father was alive and he was going to recuperate, she said.

“After I began my long road to recovery at the hospital, I soon learned that my father died,” she said with tears running down face.

When Campbell’s trial began, Bosler said that she remembered a conversation with her father years before 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.’”

Honoring her father’s wishes was one of the hardest things she has ever done, Bosler said, but nevertheless she began fighting against the death penalty for Campbell. 

She also has forgiven Campbell for his crimes, she said. “If it was an eye for an eye in this world, we would all be blind. We’re all imperfect. We all make mistakes.”

Faith is the motivating factor for her work, she said, and she showed the audience a card she carries in her pocket that she said was her declaration of life, requesting that if she dies by violent crime, “no matter how heinous, I don’t want the person responsible for doing so to receive capital punishment. I’m not just saying the words, I mean the words.”

For Charles Keith, his brother’s conviction and an experience with God drove him to advocate against the death penalty. 

Keith’s brother Kevin Keith was convicted in Ohio on three counts of aggravated murder and sentenced to die by lethal injection on Sept. 15, 2010. Thirteen days before that sentence was to be carried out, the governor of Ohio commuted that sentence to life without parole, saying that there were questions about the evidence. Kevin Keith has unsuccessfully appealed the sentence, 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. “God told me to look at the trial of Jesus, how unfair it was — and that moment has shaped me. He told me, ‘If you believe in me, believe in me, and we’ll do something with those tears.’” 

He started studying the Bible to look for a religion that would help him the most with his brother, he said; he has been a death row advocate for more than 20 years.

At the press conference, held on the steps of the Utah State Capitol, Father Kenneth Vialpando, the Diocese of Salt Lake City’s vicar for clergy, speaking on behalf of Bishop Oscar A. Solis, said the petition that was presented to Gov. Cox represented the diocese’s stance against the death penalty. “We are called to be our brother’s keeper by promoting life, not death. The Catholic Church teaches that the death penalty is inadmissible, no matter the seriousness of the crime, because capital punishment is an offense against the inviolability of human life and the dignity of the human person, which contradicts God’s plan for man and society, which does not render justice to the victims and their families but fosters vengeance.”

Following the press conference, Fr. Vialpando, joined by Beasley, Bonowitz, Gardner and others, went inside to the governor’s office to present the petition to Michael Mower, senior advisor of community outreach and intergovernmental relations for Cox’s office.

“Please allow Taberon Honie time to make good with God, not on our time schedule, but on his,” Beasley pleaded to Mower. 

“Please let him live. Don’t kill him. Please just let him have life in prison. We’re not murderers,” she said, her voice breaking and trailing off.