Utah | The staggering cost of Taberon Honie's execution

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A 2 News Investigation looks into what the cost for taxpayers for Taberon Dave Honie’s execution compared to life in prison without the possibility of parole. And what about the actual executioners who will put the condemned killer to death? Like other states that have the death penalty, 2 News Investigates found Utah is secretive when it comes to the source of the drugs, the training of the executioners and how much they get paid.

We dug as deep as we could attempting to get answers for taxpayers.

On July 22, before the five-member Utah parole board, Honie said, “I’m asking this board to allow me to exist in prison.”

While sentenced to death in 1999, Honie wants to exist. From a financial standpoint, it’s less expensive to keep him in prison for the rest of his natural life than it is to execute him.

His victim, Claudia Benn had been repeatedly stabbed and her body mutilated in front of her three young grandchildren including Honie’s daughter. Benn’s family members spoke to what this has done to their family.

Benn’s niece told parole board members, “I'd like to think that this is the easy way for you to go compared to what you did to my aunt. We didn't get 26 years extra.

At 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, August 8, in the execution chamber at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City, Utah Department of Corrections Executive Director Brian Redd will give USCF Warden Bart Mortensen approval to fulfill the death warrant of the State. The curtains over the witness window will open and Honie will be offered his last words. Redd will then signal for the execution to begin as the execution team begins the lethal injection. Honie, still relatively young, will die at the age of 48.

Robin Maher, the Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. says, “Every study that has looked at the cost of using the death penalty all the way through to an execution has found that it is much more expensive to execute someone than it is to sentence someone to life without the possibility of parole on a maximum-security prison.”

The DPIC does not take a position on the death penalty.

2 News Investigates submitted a public records request to the Utah Department of Corrections to find out how much taxpayers will have spent from Honie’s first day in prison up until Wednesday August 7.

UDC’s records reveal the average cost of incarcerating Honie from May 21, 1999, through August 7, 2024, is estimated to be $759,674.66.

However, UDC notes that the more than seven-hundred-fifty-nine-thousand-dollar price tag could be higher or lower depending on educational training Honie received, jobs, the level of staffing needed for him, transportation to his hearings over the years, healthcare, among other things.

Maher says, “It does appear that Utah has followed with the models of other states in shrouding its execution protocol and all of this important information about the execution from the eyes of the public.”

2 News Investigates pored over state statute and UDC protocol and found the execution team is comprised of six people.

Two are UDC employees, the Warden Bart Mortensen and Randall Honey, the Director of Prison Operations.

Four medical professionals are then contracted for the execution. To be clear, 2 News Investigates did not ask UDC for any identifying information about these individuals.

According to state statute and UDC protocol, two are the IV Team who according to state code are “trained in accordance with accepted medical practices to administer intravenous injections.”

The other two are the execution team. State statute, more specifically, 77-19-10 shows compensation for the two who each administer a “continuous” lethal quantity is negotiated by UDC and the Division of Finance with the executioners. The amount is determined by the Director of the Division of Finance.

2 News Investigates tried to find out how much overall the executioners will be paid, but for now it’s cloaked in secrecy.

This is not out of the norm according to Maher, “Many states have refused to provide information to these questions because they claim that there are secrecy requirements to provide harassment from advocates, we have no evidence that happens, but it is also beside the point these are elected officials using taxpayer funds and they should be answering these questions.”

We wanted to know what the execution team will do if there is an emergency and whether there will be enough medical staff there if the one-drug UDC procured to kill Honie doesn’t work quickly enough.

Keep in mind, UDC paid $7,900 of taxpayer money for the original three-drug cocktail to kill Honie. The drugs include ketamine, fentanyl, and potassium chloride.

But following litigation by Honie’s legal team, the State changed course and purchased three doses of pentobarbital the executioners will continuously inject into Honie’s veins.

The cost to taxpayers: $200,000.

Those same court documents reveal pursuant to the execution warrant, 5 grams of pentobarbital will be administered to Honie. It also says, of the three doses of pentobarbital, one will be for the execution and two backups in case of complications.

Glen Mills, UDC Director of Communications and Government Relations confirmed to 2 News Investigates that the department had already paid for the three drugs but says UDC could potentially resell or trade the drugs to recoup the cost. At this point, Mills says it’s an option, but nothing is concrete.

Maher says, “I mean these are legitimate questions to ask about the use of taxpayer funds.”

It’s important to note, after initially denying 2 News Investigates request about the cost for the executioners, we received a follow-up email from Mill that says, “Wendy, In response to your request for the cost of executioners in the upcoming execution of Taberon Honie, we will not be providing that information at this time. Those transactions are not complete. We will make a determination as to what can be released, and how given UDC's obligations under the law.”

Source: kutv.com, Wendy Halloran, August 6, 2024

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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