SALT LAKE CITY – Utah authorities on Friday denied clemency to a man who will be executed for the 1998 stabbing death of his girlfriend’s mother.
The decision on the fate of Taberon Dave Honie, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Aug. 8, was announced in a one-paragraph notice from Scott Stephenson, president of the Utah Board of Pardons and Paroles.
“After carefully reviewing all of the information presented and considering all of the parties’ arguments, the Board finds no sufficient cause to commute Mr. Honie’s death sentence,” Stephenson wrote.
During a two-day commutation hearing, Honie asked the state parole board to commute his sentence to life in prison, saying he would never have killed 49-year-old Claudia Benn after a day of excessive drinking and drug use. , if he was in your house. “right mind.”
Honie said she wanted to continue living to be a support for her mother and daughter. Her lawyers did not immediately respond to phone and email messages seeking comment on the ruling.
Benn’s family asked the parole board to allow his execution, saying they were devastated by the loss.
They described Benn as a pillar in their family and southwest Utah community — a tribal council member, substance abuse counselor and caregiver to their children and grandchildren.
Honie, who had a volatile relationship with Benn’s daughter, broke into the victim’s home in Cedar City, the tribal headquarters of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, on July 9, 1998.
He repeatedly slit her throat and then stabbed her. Benn’s grandchildren, including Honie’s 2-year-old daughter, were in the house at the time.
Honie was convicted in 1999 of aggravated murder. The judge who sentenced him to death concluded that Honie sexually abused one of the children, one of the aggravating factors used to reach that decision.
During the hearing, Honie’s attorneys presented testimony describing his childhood on the Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona.
His parents, like many Native Americans, were placed in government boarding schools who were often abusive, and the defense argued that they did not learn parenting skills, drank heavily and neglected Honie, who began drinking and using drugs, including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, when she was a teenager.
But the state told the board that Honie created more trauma by killing Benn.
“Imagine the intergenerational trauma of Honie’s horrific acts spreading over time,” said Assistant Attorney General Daniel Boyer.
Utah has not had an execution since Ronnie Lee Gardner was sentenced to death by firing squad in 2010. Honie is one of seven people on death row in the state.
After decades of failed appeals, his execution warrant was signed in June, despite defense objections to the planned combination of the sedative ketamine, the anesthetic fentanyl and potassium chloride to stop his heart. After Honie’s lawyers sued, prison officials agreed to switch to pentobarbital.
One of his lawyers said the defense was reviewing information about the change and working to protect his constitutional rights.
“Serious uncertainties remain about the state’s last-minute execution plan,” said one of Honie’s attorneys, Eric Zuckerman.
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Slevin reported from Denver and Brown from Billings, Montana.
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