State will review its execution of Honie as firing squad case looms
Aug 8, 2024, 4:50 PM | Updated: 6:25 pm
FILE - A chair sits in the execution chamber at the Utah State Prison on June 18, 2010, after Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad in Draper, Utah. Idaho lawmakers passed a bill on March 20, 2023, that would authorize the use of firing squads if the state is unable to obtain drugs required for its lethal injection program. The bill will head to the desk of Idaho Gov. Brad Little next. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool, File)
(Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool, File)
SALT LAKE CITY — Just after midnight Thursday morning Utah carried out its first prisoner execution since 2010. Inmate Taberon Honie was executed by lethal injection for the brutal murder of his ex-girlfriend’s mother Claudia Benn in Cedar City back in 1998.
The weeks leading up to Thursday’s execution were filled with questions over the state’s plan to do it, a switch in which drug they used, and last-minute appeals. It’s part of what could be an extensive internal review.
Starting Friday morning, the Utah Department of Corrections wants to take a good long look at how it handled Honie’s execution.
Inside the Utah State Prison, just after midnight this morning, death row inmate Taberon Honie said his final goodbyes.
“He raised up his head and looked over to where his family was viewing it, and simply said I love you,” said Chief Randall Honey, the department’s director of prison operations.
Honie was executed by lethal injection before members of the media and others as witnesses.
“And this was really like watching a person fall asleep and not wake up again. So if there was a peaceful way to put someone to death, that’s what this was,” said Pat Reavy, a KSL reporter who has witnessed other executions.
The state of Utah had originally planned to use a three-drug combination that was somewhat untested. His attorney filed a lawsuit claiming it would’ve violated his constitutional rights, so the state switched to a more expensive and more proven lethal drug, pentobarbital. The process became subject to a number of appeals, which all eventually failed, but now the state to plans to review the process in depth.
“We will look from within and take at exactly what we did, how the planning went, and what we could potentially learn from moving forward,” said Glen Mills, the corrections director of communication and government relations.
It won’t be long before planning for another execution could begin. Utah’s next death row inmate who could potentially be executed is Ralph Menzies, convicted in a kidnapping and murder back in 1988. His expected execution won’t be anything the same.
“It would be significantly different because he selected the firing squad as a method of execution,” Mills said.
The state will begin looking at how it handled Honie’s execution, to make sure Menzies’ death doesn’t see any issues.
The Menzies execution will hinge on what comes out of a competency hearing for him in November.
Menzies is eligible for execution by firing squad because his case is grandfathered under Utah’s old law, before the state moved to lethal injection as the first means of execution.
