Post-Furman US execution #1594
Utah execution #8 since reinstatement
In the early morning hours of Thursday, the 8th of August, 2024, the State of Utah carried out its first execution in more than fourteen years when 48-year-old Taberon Dave Honie was put to death by lethal injection at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City. Honie had spent over twenty-five years on death row following his conviction for the aggravated murder of his ex-partner’s mother in Cedar City, Iron County, in 1998.
His execution was the first to take place in Utah since Ronnie Lee Gardner chose to be shot by a firing squad at the old Utah State Prison in Draper in June 2010, and it marked the first time the state’s newly constructed capital execution suite at the Salt Lake City facility had been brought into operation.
The Crime
Taberon Dave Honie was a Native American belonging to the Hopi tribe, born on the 29th of October, 1975, in Keams Canyon, Arizona.
The victim was 49-year-old Claudia Marie Benn, a respected member and substance-abuse counsellor of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah. Honie had previously been in a relationship with Mrs Benn’s daughter, Carol Pikyavit, with whom he fathered a child. After their relationship ended, Miss Pikyavit moved with her children into her mother’s home in Cedar City.
On the evening of Thursday, the 9th of July, 1998, Honie telephoned Miss Pikyavit whilst heavily intoxicated, demanding that she meet him. When she declined, explaining that she was departing for work, Honie issued threats against her mother and family. Later that night, after consuming further alcohol and drugs, Honie went to Mrs Benn’s residence and smashed through a glass patio door using a rock.
Mrs Benn attempted to defend herself with a large kitchen knife, but was overpowered. Honie took the weapon and inflicted catastrophic wounds, cutting her throat from ear to ear with four deep incisions that severed into the cervical vertebrae. He then sexually assaulted and mutilated her body with the knife.
Responding to an emergency call from a neighbour who had heard glass shattering, police officers surrounded the residence in the early hours of Friday, the 10th of July. Honie walked out through the garage covered in blood, stating to officers: “I stabbed her. I killed her with a knife.” Inside the house, police discovered Mrs Benn’s body lying face down in the living room and found three young children—Mrs Benn’s granddaughters, including Honie’s own two-year-old daughter—cowering in the house covered in blood. Medical examination later revealed that Honie had also sexually molested one of the other young girls following the homicide.
Trial and Sentence
Honie was indicted in Iron County on charges of aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, object rape, and forcible sodomy.
At trial in Cedar City in May 1999, Honie waived his right to sentencing by a jury, electing instead to be tried before a judge. While his defence presented mitigating arguments regarding his severe alcoholism, chronic poverty, and childhood head injuries, the prosecution detailed the exceptional brutality of the homicide and the endangerment of the children.
On the 20th of May, 1999, the district judge convicted Honie on all counts and determined that the aggravating factors substantially outweighed the mitigation, formally imposing the sentence of death. Under Utah law at that time, condemned prisoners whose crimes occurred before 2004 could choose between lethal injection and the firing squad. Honie initially declined to select a method, which under statutory provisions defaulted his sentence to lethal injection.
Appeals and Legal Wrangling Over Drugs
Honie spent a quarter of a century pursuing state and federal habeas corpus appeals. His legal representatives argued that his original defence team had failed to investigate evidence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and traumatic brain damage stemming from an adolescent fall. The Utah Supreme Court and federal appellate courts consistently denied his petitions.
In June 2024, an Iron County judge signed Honie’s death warrant setting the execution for the 8th of August. Shortly thereafter, his attorneys brought fresh federal litigation challenging the state’s intended execution drug protocol. The state corrections department had initially proposed an unproven combination of ketamine, fentanyl, and potassium chloride. Following intense legal scrutiny, prison officials abandoned that formula and secured a supply of compounded pentobarbital, a single-dose barbiturate commonly used across other capital jurisdictions.
In July 2024, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole held a two-day commutation hearing. Honie expressed deep remorse, stating that he would never have committed the offence had he been in his right mind, and his adult daughter appealed for his life to be spared. However, surviving members of Claudia Benn’s family opposed clemency, describing the enduring trauma inflicted upon the family. The board unanimously rejected the commutation petition, and Governor Spencer Cox declined to grant a reprieve.
The Execution
On Wednesday, the 7th of August, 2024, Honie spent his final hours visiting with relatives. For his last meal, he received a cheeseburger, french fries, and a milkshake.
Shortly before midnight, Honie was escorted into the execution chamber at the Utah State Correctional Facility. He walked into the chamber voluntarily and climbed onto the central gurney, where he was secured with restraints and intravenous lines were inserted into both arms. Behind four separate viewing windows sat official witnesses, press representatives, members of the Benn family, and members of Honie’s family.
The viewing curtains were drawn open at 12:02 a.m. on Thursday, the 8th of August. The warden, Bart Mortensen, read the warrant of execution. When asked for his final words, Honie looked toward his family and composedly stated:
“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 believe them. To all my brothers and sisters here, continue to change. I love you all, take care.”
The lethal dose of pentobarbital commenced flowing at 12:04 a.m. Honie looked toward prison staff and whispered, “Thank you for taking care of my family.” He took several deep breaths, closed his eyes, and appeared to lapse into unconsciousness within a minute. A secondary planned dose was administered through the line at 12:13 a.m.
Honie remained completely motionless with his right hand resting in a loose fist. At 12:21 a.m., the electrocardiogram monitor indicated that his heart had ceased beating, and officials drew a white sheet over him before closing the witness blinds.
Taberon Dave Honie was formally pronounced dead at 12:25 a.m. Mountain Time. He was 48 years of age.
Following the execution, prison authorities permitted Honie’s father and cousin to enter the chamber to perform a traditional Hopi funerary ritual, scattering cornmeal and feathers to assist his spirit’s passage. His death brought to an end Utah’s fourteen-year hiatus in the enforcement of the death penalty.
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