Utah requests execution of death row inmate

SALT LAKE CITY — The state of Utah requested on Tuesday that a man who’s been on death row for almost 25 years be executed.

Taberon Honie was convicted of the murder of his ex-girlfriend’s mother in 1999. In the death warrant application, the state’s lawyers said Honie used up his appeals and there is no longer any legal reason to stop Honie’s execution.

“Honie has no pending action challenging either his capital murder conviction or death sentence. He has exhausted state and federal remedies challenging his conviction and sentence. Therefore, no legal reason exists to delay issuing an execution warrant,” said the official application, written by the Utah Attorney General’s office.

In December 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal for Honie.

In order to take this application to the next step, a judge needs to sign the warrant.

According to court documents from 1999, Honie was convicted of aggravated murder for killing his ex-girlfriend’s mother, Claudia Benn. He sexually assaulted her and slit her throat at her home in Cedar City, in front of her three grandchildren.

He was given the death penalty on May 24, 1999 and has been on death row ever since.

Honie is the second inmate that the state is seeking to execute this year. Currently, the state has also filed a death warrant application for Ralph Leroy Menzies.

Both men could die by firing squad if their executions go forward (Utah has said in the past it does not have the chemicals necessary to carry out a lethal injection execution).

Honie is also part of a lawsuit challenging Utah's death penalty statutes that is currently being litigated in the Utah court system.

Sources: kslnewsradio.com, fox13now.com, Staff, May 1, 2024

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