The expected cost of drugs for Utah’s execution jumped from $7K to $200K. Here’s why the state says it’s worth it.

Prison officials believe it would have cost more to fight Taberon Honie in court over their initial plan to use an untested three-drug cocktail than pay for the pentobarbital they now plan to buy.

Utah prison officials are expecting to spend $200,000 for the lethal injection drug they now plan to use to execute Taberon Honie, after changing course when the death row inmate’s attorney raised questions about the state’s original plan to use an untested three-drug cocktail.

That’s twice the amount that Idaho corrections officials paid to obtain the same amount of pentobarbital last year, according to news reports. And it’s 25 times more than the estimated cost of $7,900 for the three-drug combination of ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride that the Utah prison initially planned to use.

But Glen Mills, a spokesperson for the Utah Department of Corrections, said that prison officials are planning to move forward with getting the pricier three doses of pentobarbital because officials believe the costs to fight Honie in court over the novel three-drug combination would exceed $200,000.

Scrapping the earlier plan to use the three-drug combination in favor of pentobarbital did whittle down Honie’s lawsuit. Attorneys on Wednesday agreed to dismiss claims challenging the untried drug mixture, which his legal team had argued could subject him to a painful death in violation of the state’s constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.

Prison officials have also offered a way for Honie’s lawyers to call a judge and ask them to stop the execution, currently scheduled for Aug. 8, if something goes wrong during the lethal injection and Honie appears to be suffering. Prison officials initially said they would not allow Honie’s attorney to have a communication device in the prison, which was another aspect he was challenging in his lawsuit. That claim was also dismissed Wednesday as part of a stipulation.

The lawsuit hasn’t been entirely settled, though. Attorneys will argue next Tuesday over two key issues: Whether Honie had enough notification to research the drug the prison plans to use and whether the prison needs to update its execution protocol.

That protocol has been in place since 2010, and reflects the use of “sodium thiopental or other equally or more effective substance sufficient to cause death.” It is illegal to import sodium thiopental, a fast-acting barbiturate, and the only U.S.-based supplier stopped production in 2011.

Honie has been on death row for 25 years. In July 1998, Honie called his ex-girlfriend and demanded she visit him, threatening to kill her family if she refused. Later that evening, sometime before midnight, Honie took a cab to the house of Claudia Benn, his ex-girlfriend’s mother. He broke the door in with a rock and then beat, bit, stabbed and sexually assaulted Benn as he killed her, court documents state.

Honie’s lawsuit is one of his last chances to stop his scheduled execution. Earlier this week, he also asked the Utah parole board for clemency. The board is now considering that request and is expected to issue a decision before his execution date.

In declarations filed last weekend, Randall Honey, chief of prison operations, and UDC Executive Director Brian Redd described the state’s attempts to acquire pentobarbital.

Officials reached out to 12 states, which “either did not respond, or replied stating that due to their laws, they could not provide any information related to their supply of pentobarbital,” Honey said. The drug is an authorized execution option in at least 10 other states.

Honey said he also contacted an unnamed pharmacist “who told me that they could also not procure pentobarbital.” That pharmacist suggested instead to use the three-drug combination of ketamine, fentanyl, and potassium chloride. Mills, the corrections spokesperson, would not say Thursday whether the state paid this pharmacist for his or her opinion, or how much.

At a June hearing, lawyers with the Utah attorney general’s office presented the plan to use the three drugs during a hearing when asking for Honie’s death warrant — which the judge signed.

Following news coverage of that hearing, Redd said, “I was contacted by an individual who ... informed me that they could get me in touch with a supplier of pentobarbital.”

Redd contacted the supplier. And now, Honey wrote, prison officials say they will be able to get the supply of pentobarbital in an “appropriate and legal way” at least three days before Honie’s scheduled execution.

Source: sltrib.com, Jessica Miller, July 26, 2024

_____________________________________________________________________

Twitter/X | Facebook | Telegram | Contact Us

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Kansas AG urges governor to deny clemency to 8 sentenced to death

TOPEKA — Attorney General Kris Kobach on Tuesday urged the governor to deny clemency to Kansas inmates who have been sentenced to death. Eight of nine people sentenced to death in Kansas formally filed clemency requests in May, according to a press release from the Attorney General’s Office. Kobach urged Gov. Laura Kelly to reject them.

Idaho will soon turn to firing squad executions. Police will pull the triggers

Trained members of Idaho law enforcement with demonstrated firearms proficiency are expected to fill slots for carrying out the death penalty by firing squad as the state prison system transitions to the controversial execution method next month. Six volunteers certified for no less than three years apiece through Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, will be recruited to ensure the Idaho Department of Correction is ready to comply with a state law that prioritizes shooting prisoners to death over lethal injection starting July 1. No one on the team may have faced disciplinary action over firearms, use of force, or related conduct over the prior year, according to new execution protocols the prison system released this week.

SCOTUS: Alabama can’t execute Jeffery Lee by nitrogen; Thursday execution called off

After a week of legal volleyball, Alabama death row inmate Jeffery Lee’s execution—scheduled for Thursday evening—was called off after federal courts called the state’s nitrogen gas execution method “likely unconstitutional.” The state took the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court, hoping Lee could still be put to death tonight. In an order issued at 8:10 p.m., the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that it would not lift a ban on Alabama executing Lee via nitrogen . In a short court order, the justices denied Alabama’s motion to go ahead with the execution. Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch would have granted the appeal and let the execution proceed, according to the order.

Alabama | Judge bars nitrogen gas execution, says method is unconstitutionally cruel

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A federal judge on Tuesday permanently blocked Alabama from executing an inmate with nitrogen gas after declaring it violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. U.S. District Judge Emily Marks issued the ruling hours after an appeals court reversed her initial finding that the method was constitutional. Marks permanently enjoined the state from executing Jeffrey Lee, 49, by nitrogen gas. He was scheduled to be executed Thursday. The decision, for now, blocks the use of the controversial new execution method that the state has championed since 2024, but the issue will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

With nitrogen gas blocked, Alabama seeks to execute inmate by lethal injection

Jeffery Lee, who successfully challenged his scheduled Thursday execution by nitrogen gas, argued that execution by firing squad would be less painful. The Alabama Attorney General’s Office Friday sought to put an Alabama death row inmate to death by lethal injection a day after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed the state’s attempt to execute him by nitrogen gas. In a filing with the Alabama Supreme Court Friday afternoon, the state sought an expedited motion to set a new execution date for Jeffery Lee, 49. The state said that with a permanent injunction in place against nitrogen gas, the method by which the state intended to execute Lee on Thursday, it could execute him by lethal injection or the electric chair.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

US | Army lays groundwork for death row executions if Trump gives approval

The Army is preparing to carry out the executions of the military's four death-row inmates if ordered to do so by the president, according to an internal planning document reviewed by ABC News. If carried out, it would mark the first time the military executed convicted American inmates in more than a half-century The plan, dubbed "Operation Resolute Justice" and issued internally in February, directs Army officials to coordinate with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to transfer condemned prisoners from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to the federal execution facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, where the Justice Department carried out a series of non-military federal executions during President Donald Trump's first term.

New Mississippi billboard warns criminals: ‘Firing squad is legal’

DESOTO COUNTY, Miss. (WREG) — A billboard standing on Interstate 55 southbound as you cross the Tennessee state line and enter Mississippi from Memphis is sending a grim message to those coming into the state. DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton recently announced the new billboard campaign, which features the sign reading, “WELCOME TO MISSISSIPPI. WHERE THE FIRING SQUAD IS LEGAL. THINK TWICE.” It references Mississippi’s law permitting execution by firing squad under certain circumstances for inmates sentenced to death. Barton says this campaign is aimed at deterring violent crime and sends a direct message to criminals entering Mississippi.

Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch wanted an execution that a Trump judge deemed illegal

The Supreme Court these days is generally in the business of helping executions go forward. But on Thursday night, the court did something notable: It told Alabama no. Even then, the court wasn't unanimous. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the refusal to let the nitrogen gas execution of Jeffery Lee proceed. What prompted the rare rejection? In line with the typical shadow docket practice, the court didn't explain itself. Nor did the dissenters, who merely noted their disagreement. But a deeper look at the case helps us understand why a majority of the court was unwilling to help the state this time.

Texas | Tanner Horner now incarcerated at the Polunsky Unit

Convicted child killer Tanner Horner has now taken up residence in one of the most brutal death row prisons after being sentenced to die by a Texas jury last month. Horner is incarcerated at the Polunsky Unit, an infamously restrictive prison outside Houston where the state's death row inmates are housed in an all-solitary confinement wing and spend at least 22 hours a day in their 60-square-foot cells. The former FedEx deliveryman, 34, was booked at the notorious prison on May 5 within hours of being sentenced for the gruesome murder of Athena Strand, 7, whom he admitted strangling while delivering a Christmas gift to her home in November 2022.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog