Bexley native to receive award for work to end death penalty

Bexley native Abe Bonowitz, once an advocate of eye-for an-eye justice who said he was willing to "pull the switch myself" at an execution, will receive an award today in Washington as the national death-penalty abolitionist of the year.

Bonowitz, 37, will be recognized by the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. The group is comprised of religious, civil rights and other organizations working to end capital punishment in the United States.

Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director, praised Bonowitz for "relentless, around-the-clock advocacy on behalf of a vision and a future that does not include capital punishment."

Bonowitz is head of Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, a Gainesville, Fla., nonprofit group.

Born and raised in the Columbus area, Bonowitz graduated from Bexley High School in 1984, got a degree from the Ohio Institute of Photography in Dayton and attended Ohio State University.

While working as a photographer for what was AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1987, Bonowitz learned about Amnesty International. He didn't immediately change his mind about the death penalty, however.

"I said, 'an eye for an eye. If you kill, I'll pull the switch myself.'"

But Bonowitz said he soon came to believe that race, geography and socio-economic status play as much of a role in who is executed as guilt or innocence.

In 17 years, Bonowitz has been arrested seven times for protests, including once at the Ohio Governor's Residence.