SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Officials with the Utah Department of Corrections and State Correctional Facility said the execution of death row inmate Taberon Honie went as smoothly as they could have hoped for this morning, Aug. 8.
Honie was pronounced dead by a medical examiner at around 12:25 a.m. Thursday morning after he was administered two lethal doses of pentobarbital starting at 12:04 a.m., according to prison officials. Honie, who had been seen moving his feet either out of nervousness or as one witness speculated, “to a song in his head,” slowly stopped moving.
Media reporters, for their part, described the execution as “watching someone fall asleep,” which was a stark contrast to the “violent” firing squad execution of Utah’s prior death row killing, Ronnie Lee Gardner 14 years ago. The reporters generally agreed, however, that they lost all sense of time in waiting for Honie to be declared dead. In actuality, the entire process took about 17 minutes.
In his final moments of consciousness, Prison Chief Randall Honey reported that Honie thanked the prison staff for taking care of Honie and his family and then turned toward the room where his family was watching and said, “I love you.” Honie’s mother reportedly replied back to him that she loved him, too, though he would not be able to hear her.
While those were Honie’s actual last words, he made the following statement before the injection began: “If it needs to be done for them to heal, let’s do this. If they tell you you can’t change, don’t listen to them. To all my brothers and sisters here, continue to change. I love you all. Take care.”
Immediately after Honie’s EKG readings stopped, family members were allowed to perform a short ceremony to help Honie’s soul along, in accordance with his family’s Native American traditions. Honey said bird feathers and cornmeal were used to “create a path” to help Honie’s soul from becoming trapped within the room.
Onhand to watch were half a dozen members of the media, including ABC4.com’s Sarah Murphy, another half dozen Honie family members, seven family members of Honie’s victims, and a host of state legislators and law enforcement officers, including Iron County District Attorney Scott Burns, who originally prosecuted Honie. Staff members from Gov. Spencer Cox’s office and the Utah Attorney Sean Reyes’ office were also in attendance, though neither official was.
Both offices released statements overnight, however.
“Early this morning the state of Utah fulfilled its legal obligation to carry out the execution of Taberon Honie,” stated Cox. “The actions of Mr. Honie that lead to his death sentence are heinous. I respect the process of our criminal justice system, and recognize the countless public servants who meticulously planned and approached their responsibilities with professionalism. I hope this brings closure to those impacted by the crimes. My heart goes out to the victim’s family.”
Reyes acknowledged that the controversy surrounding the death penalty is divisive.
“But, there is no dispute that the violent and unprovoked taking of innocent lives from fellow human beings is among the crimes deemed by society to be most vile, repugnant, and punishable by the harshest measures possible,” stated Reyes. “In states like Utah, that includes the death penalty.”
He asked that opponents of the death penalty would “allow grace for those who carried out their duties as required by law,” while noting that even among members of the execution team some were performing those duties “in spite of their own personal views.”
Utah Department of Corrections Executive Director Brian Redd explained that the doctor in charge of lethal injection had recommended Honie be given two fatal doses of pentobarbital 20 minutes apart. Since the second dose had already been readied and could not be reused, the dose was actually administered after only five minutes.
Redd said around 200 people were involved in the execution this morning, which did not count other prison staff on hand to keep the facility operating. While the prison has been on lockdown since 7 a.m. Wednesday morning for security reasons, normal operations are expected to resume by 6 a.m. Thursday morning.
UDC Communications Director Glen Mills said the lack of problems during the execution were a result of a lot of planning and no less than seven dry runs with a UDC employee roughly Honie’s size and weight.
“We went into it very confident in the planning,” said Mills. “I would say as a result of what happened, that showed tonight.”
Redd and Mills both said, however, members of the department will be debriefed over the next couple of days to make sure everything really did go to plan. A report will also be filed with the court, in accordance with the law.
Meanwhile, staff members and inmates alike will have access to mental health evaluations and treatment as needed. At the same time, however, Redd noted that situations like this morning’s execution are part of the job, as difficult as it may be to do.
A lot of it is, we need to check our feelings at the door,” said Redd.
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