SALT LAKE CITY — The backlash has begun for the scheduled execution of Taberon Honie, the southern Utah man who murdered his ex-girlfriend's mother in 1998 in Cedar City.
Anti-death penalty activists arrived in Salt Lake City Friday afternoon to protest against Thursday's lethal injection.
SueZann Bosler watched James Bernard Campbell stab her father over twenty times before he turned on her, stabbing her in the back and twice in the head.
Bosler survived but her father, Rev. Billy Bosler, did not. It's been over 37 years since his murder.
"I really didn't do very well. I didn't want to live anymore because I felt like I didn't save his life," said Bosler.
She made it her mission to save her father's killer from death row.
She was successful and now works with Death Penalty Action, a national organization that just landed in Utah to oppose Honie's execution.
"[My father's] favorite hymn was 'Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me,'" she said. "But I say, let it begin with all of us."
"I think about the state, the collateral damage that the state creates when they have these executions. It's horrendous," said Randy Gardner.
Gardner's brother, Ronnie Lee Gardner, was the last death row inmate executed in Utah in 2010. He's also the last person in the United States to be executed by firing squad.
"The men that volunteered to execute my brother, I could give them a hug and say I forgive them. That's such a powerful word and I think that's what a lot of this is all about," he said.
Although Gardner and Bosler say capital punishment is not the answer, the family of Honie's victim, Claudia Benn, asked the state parole board last week to go forward with the execution.
"The way he killed her, that's just sick...An eye for an eye, as God says it. It's a sad day today," said Benn's niece, Sarah China Azule.
"Taberon, you robbed us," said her cousin, Betsy China. "Twenty-five years of missing out on her knowledge, her ability to read at a higher level and comprehend and help us."
The chosen drug, pentobarbital, will cost the state $200,000.
"Let's put [the money] into better services for victims' families. Let's put it into prevention," said Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action.
The organization will host the event "Conversation About the Death Penalty" this Sunday. The dialogue is meant to give Utahns "a chance to comment and ask questions...for everyone who is curious or concerned about what our government is about to do next, not just Catholics."
Gardner, Bosler, and Bonowitz will present.
The event is at 2 p.m. at the Blessed Sacrament Parish Center, 9757 S 1700 East, in Sandy.
