Utah files warrant to move forward with execution of death row convict Taberone Honie
EDITOR’S NOTE: This post has been edited for clarity
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — With all appeals exhausted, a death row convict in Utah could face the firing squad after the state has decided to move forward with his execution for a murder dating back to the 1990s.
On Tuesday, May 1, the Utah Attorney General ‘s Office signed the state’s application for the execution for Taberone Dave Honie, who was convicted on May 18, 1999, for the aggravated murder of Claudia Benn.
According to court documents, Honie committed the murder while also attempting to commit object rape, forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual assault, burglary, aggravated burglary, and aggravated child sex abuse. The jury in the case found Honie guilty of the first five of those additional charges but could not reach unanimity on the aggravated child sexual abuse.
Honie used a rock to smash through a glass patio door before he cut Benn’s throat four times and slashed her with a kitchen knife. She also faced bites and sexual assault. Police arrested Honie, who was covered in blood. Three children were in the home at the time of the killing. Firth District Judge Robert Braithwaite was quoted as saying at the time, “It was not a sentence I gave to the defendant; he earned it. If this isn’t a death penalty case, I don’t know what is.”
Honie waived the right to a jury for the penalty phase of the proceedings and on May 24, 1999, was sentenced to death.
Honie attempted to appeal his case, but both the Utah Supreme Court and the federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his original conviction. In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his case. Honie and four other death row inmates attempted to sue the state to overturn Utah’s death penalty in 2023, but a Utah judge dismissed that suit.
Utah judge upholds death penalty after five death-row inmates sued to overturn it
Officials stated in this week’s execution warrant application that Honie’s appeals have been exhausted, which means there’s no reason for the state to continue to stay his execution.
“Honie has no pending action challenging either his capital murder conviction or his death sentence,” stated the warrant. “He has exhausted state and federal remedies challenging his conviction and sentence.”
Firing squad
Honie, along with death row inmates Ralph Menzies, Troy Kell, Douglas Carter and Michael Archuleta — all sentenced prior to 2004 — attempted to overturn the state’s death penalty last year. In their suit, they claimed that Utah no longer has lethal injection capabilities, meaning the convicts will have to be executed by a firing squad under Utah’s current laws.
While the five attempted to argue the firing squad was “cruel and unusual punishment,” the state’s 3rd District Court dismissed that suit in December 2023.
Utah is one of only four U.S. states that still allow executions by firing squads, including Mississippi, South Carolina, and Oklahoma. As of 2015, Utah made lethal injection the state’s primary method of execution but kept the firing squad as a backup method if the drugs needed for lethal injection are unavailable.
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