Utah officers deny clemency for man set to be executed for 1998 killing of his girlfriend’s mom

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah officers denied clemency Friday to a person who’s set to be executed for the stabbing dying of his girlfriend’s mom in 1998.

The choice relating to the destiny of Taberon Dave Honie, who’s scheduled to die by lethal injection Aug. 8, was introduced in a one-paragraph discover from Scott Stephenson, chair of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.

“After fastidiously reviewing all submitted data and contemplating all arguments from the events, the Board doesn’t discover ample trigger to commute Mr. Honie’s dying sentence,” Stephenson wrote.

Throughout a two-day commutation listening to this week, Honie asked the parole board to commute his sentence to life in jail, saying he would by no means have killed 49-year-old Claudia Benn after a day of heavy ingesting and drug use had he been in his “proper thoughts.”

Honie mentioned he needed to proceed to dwell to be a help for his mom and his daughter. His attorneys didn’t instantly reply to phone and electronic mail messages in search of touch upon the clemency denial.

Benn’s household urged the parole board to permit him to be executed, saying they’ve been devastated by their loss.

They described Benn as a pillar of their household and southwestern Utah neighborhood — a tribal council member, substance abuse counselor and caregiver for her kids and grandchildren.

Honie, who had a risky relationship with Benn’s daughter, broke into the sufferer’s home in Cedar Metropolis, the tribal headquarters of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, on July 9, 1998.

He repeatedly slashed her throat after which stabbed her. Benn’s grandchildren, together with Honie’s 2-year-old daughter, had been in the home on the time.

“The way in which he killed her, that’s simply sick. … A watch for an eye fixed, as God says it,” Sarah China Azule, Benn’s niece, mentioned throughout testimony.

Honie was convicted in 1999 of aggravated homicide. The choose who sentenced him to dying discovered that Honie had sexually abused one of many kids, one of many aggravating elements used to achieve that call.

In the course of the listening to, Honie’s attorneys introduced testimony describing his traumatic childhood rising up on the Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona.

His mother and father, like many Native People, had been put into into government boarding schools that had been typically abusive, and the protection argued that they didn’t study parenting expertise, had been heavy drinkers and uncared for Honie, who started ingesting and utilizing medication together with cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine by the point he was a young person.

However the state informed the board that Honie created extra trauma by killing Benn.

“Think about the intergenerational traumas from Honie’s horrific acts trickling down by means of time,” Assistant Solicitor Basic Daniel Boyer mentioned.

Utah has not had an execution since Ronnie Lee Gardner was put to dying by firing squad in 2010.

Honie is certainly one of six individuals awaiting execution within the state. The dying sentence for a seventh particular person, Douglas Lovell, who killed a girl to maintain her from testifying in opposition to him in a rape case, was overturned Thursday by the Utah Supreme Courtroom. He might be resentenced.

After many years of failed appeals, Honie’s execution warrant was signed in June regardless of protection objections to the deliberate mixture of the sedative ketamine, the anesthetic fentanyl and potassium chloride to cease his coronary heart. When Honie’s attorneys sued, corrections officers agreed to switch to pentobarbital, however the case continues to be pending.

One among his legal professionals mentioned beforehand that the protection was reviewing data relating to the change and dealing to guard his constitutional rights.

“Critical uncertainty nonetheless stays concerning the state’s last-minute execution plan,” legal professional Eric Zuckerman mentioned.

Jail officers have agreed to let certainly one of Honie’s legal professionals have entry to a telephone whereas witnessing the execution in case an emergency movement wants submitting, based on a Wednesday courtroom order.