Utah Death Row Inmate Taberon Honie Executed, Sparks Renewed Conversations about Capital Punishment

The execution of a death row inmate in Utah this week has reignited conversations about capital punishment laws in the U.S., the winding legal road death row inmates will often go down as they begin serving out their sentence, and what the future of death row should look like.

Shortly after midnight, early Thursday morning, the Utah Department of Corrections executed 48-year-old Taberon Dave Honie by lethal injectionlethal injectionLethal injection is a method of carrying out a death sentence by administering one or more drugs intended to cause death. Lethal injection protocols are governed by state or federal law and can be challenged under the Eighth Amendment if the procedure allegedly creates an unconstitutional risk of severe pain.Read more →. Honie was a death row inmate who was convicted of sexually assaulting and stabbing to death 49-year-old Claudia Benn, the mother of his then-girlfriend in 1998. Benn was a grandmother of three girls. The girls were in the house when the then 22-year-old killed Benn.

Officials with the Utah Department of Corrections and State Correctional Facility shared that the execution went as planned using the lethal drug pentobarbital. Honie received two doses at the advice of medical professionals.

Honie becomes the eighth man to be executed in Utah in modern times. The last execution happened 14 years ago after 49-year-old Ronnie Lee Gardner was killed on June 18, 2020, by firing squad.

As the execution was taking place inside the prison, anti-death penalty demonstrators gathered outside to express their views. Their protests reflect the ongoing conversation throughout the nation about the death penalty and overall views of capital punishment.

While over 70% of nations across the globe have done away with the death penalty, the practice is still legal in 27 states in the U.S. according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). Those states include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

Six states including Arizona, California, Oregon, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee still have the death penalty on the books but have placed a hold on executions due to the questionable reliability of the drugs used during execution.

The reliability of the drugs used during an execution and lingering doubt about a death row inmate's guilt have been two of the main reasons why the death penalty has been so highly criticized. Others have argued there is an issue of ethics when justice is carried out in this form.

Over the past two decades, the lethal injections used during executions have been called into question. Most notable were the cases of Joseph R. Wood who was executed in Arizona, Dennis McGuire who was executed in Ohio, and Clayton Lockett who was executed in Oklahoma, all of whom were executed in 2014. During their executions, the men were witnessed to have been coughing, convulsing, gasping for air, twitching, and showing other signs of distress.

Additionally, according to the DPIC, since 1973, at least 200 inmates have been exonerated from death row. Another study suggests that at least 4% of those who are sentenced are innocent of the crimes they have been accused of.

As with most death row inmates, Honie’s legal battle leading up to his execution was full of uncertainty and complicated appeals processes. Honie exhausted all his appeals over the decades and in June, a judge signed the execution warrant despite Honie’s legal team’s objection to the lethal drug that was to be used. In July, the drug cocktail was reassessed and the execution protocol was changed so that only a high dose of pentobarbital could be used.

Honie’s legal team also filed a final request to delay the execution to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, but that request was denied as well. Through his time in prison, Honie took ownership of his action but pleaded with the parole board that had he been in his “right mind,” he would not have killed Benn. During his trial, his defense argued that Honie had been under the influence and that he does not recall the events that took place that fateful night.

While Honie’s execution has now been fulfilled, it has left many discussing the implications of the death penalty and what it says about our justice system as a whole. While feelings are mixed across the nation, Utah Corrections officials shared that Honie’s feelings were resolved as he accepted his fate in the days and hours leading up to his execution date.

His final statement before receiving the lethal injection was as follows: “From the start it’s been, if it needs to be done for them to heal, let’s do this. If they tell you you can’t change, don’t listen to them. To all my brothers and sisters in here, continue to change. I love you all. Take care.”