Taberon Honie executed for 1998 killing of Claudia Marie Benn
Aug 8, 2024, 12:31 AM | Updated: 4:40 am
Death row inmate Taberon Honie listens during a commutation hearing before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole Monday. Four women, all related to Claudia Benn whom he brutally murdered in 1998, testified Tuesday that he should be put to death. (Utah Board of Pardons and Parole)
(Utah Board of Pardons and Parole)
SALT LAKE CITY — Taberon Dave Honie, 48, was put to death early Thursday morning for the murder of Claudia Marie Benn, who was 49 when she was killed in 1998.
The announcement was made at approximately 12:30 a.m. Thursday.
“The sentence, the execution of Taberon Dave Honie has been carried out,” Utah Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Tapahe said in a media briefing room at the prison. It was planned to bring journalists who witnessed the execution to the same people when the department planned to hold a final press conference.
Honie was given a lethal injection at the Utah State Prison while strapped to an execution gurney. He was connected to an IV in each arm, then the curtains were pulled back in the execution chamber. He was given an opportunity to speak his last words before the command of his death was given and a fatal drug administered.
The execution warrant for Taberon Dave Honie has been carried out. More details will be available at the press conference when the media witnesses return to the media center.
— UTDeptofCorrections (@UtahCorrections) August 8, 2024
State officials revealed more about the execution process in a press conference that also featured media watchdog witnesses.
Witnesses watched through windows into the execution chamber, the first time it has been used at the new prison, built in 2022. It was previously stated by law enforcement that seven people related to Benn, or associated with her, would watch the death sentence carried out.
Daughter of Utah death row inmate navigates complicated dance of grief and healing before execution
Seven journalists were among those in attendance in a separate witness room to watch what the Utah Department of Corrections characterized as a meticulously planned execution. Honie was expected to have five witnesses, four from his family and his attorney.
Over a mile away from the prison dozens of people gathered at a designated “free speech zone” to sing, pray and generally protest the execution.
Rony Charles was one of those who showed up to protest Honie’s execution.
Charles, who is originally from Haiti, said he is a Christian and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he does not believe capital punishment lines up with the teachings of Christ.
“It is barbarism, in my view,” Charles said. “Who gives me the right to take someone else’s life? I don’t think no one should have that right – that power – and reason to take someone else’s life. It’s barbarism killing another human being.”
A group gathers to pray as we near the scheduled execution of Utah death row inmate Taberon Honie. @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/gmb4c51QfL
— Daniel Woodruff (@danielmwoodruff) August 8, 2024
The state keeps the source of its lethal drugs a secret but Honie was expected to receive pentobarbital for the lethal injection. Two people with medical training administered a drug through an IV, neither sure which of the chemicals introduced to his body was the lethal drug.
Honie was moved to an observation cell Wednesday morning where he was given his last meal. He was allowed to meet with family and his legal team on his final day. He ordered a cheeseburger as a final meal, prepared inside the prison.
Honie said through prison officials that he preferred that his last meal be remembered as the one he shared with family previously. Visitors met with Honie only in pairs and through a barrier. He reportedly visited with his daughter and his parents, among others.
He also reportedly spoke with a spiritual adviser from the Hopi Reservation.
Honie was tried and convicted in an Iron County court where he was also sentenced to die.
Prison and Department of Corrections officials held press conferences hourly Wednesday afternoon and evening.
As a matter of routine, the prison in placed on lockdown on the day of the execution. A group filed a lawsuit claiming the requirement to protest an execution from a mile away was too far. In a press conference, corrections officials said the area was designated because a lot of the land surrounding the prison is private and there aren’t a lot of ways into and out of the prison.
The protesting groups were made up of national organizations opposed to the death penalty — Death Penalty Action, the For Whom the Bell Tolls initiative, and Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty — they were also joined by the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, and Randy Gardner, the brother of Ronnie Lee Gardner, the last person executed in Utah in 2010.
The group made an appeal to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who had previously denied a reprieve for Honie. The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole also denied Honie’s petition to commute his death sentence.
Honie was Utah’s eighth execution since the United States Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1977. Utah’s Gary Gilmore, was the first person in the nation to be executed after the death penalty became legal. His case was given national attention, partly because he elected to be killed by firing squad.
Since Gilmore, the following have been killed by the state:
- Dale Selby Pierre
- Arthur Gary Bishop
- Williams Andrews
- John Albert Taylor
- Joseph Mitchell Parssons
- Ronnie Lee Gardner
Utah has five inmates on death row: Von Lester Taylor, Anthony Archuleta, Douglas Carter, Troy Kell and Ralph Menzies.
Douglas Lovell recently had his death sentence vacated and sent back to a district court to be resentenced.
In Texas Wednesday, Arthur Lee Burton was executed. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org, Texas has executed 586 since the death penalty’s return, with Oklahoma’s 123 as the next-highest total.
Daniel Woodruff contributed to this story.
