Utah officials deny clemency to man facing execution for murdering his girlfriend’s mother in 1998

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah state authorities on Friday denied clemency to a man scheduled to be executed for the 1998 stabbing murder of his girlfriend’s mother.

The decision on the fate of Taberon Dave Honie, who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on August 8, was announced in a one-paragraph statement by Scott Stephenson, chairman of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.

“After carefully reviewing all of the information presented and considering all of the arguments presented by the parties, the panel does not find sufficient grounds to commute Mr. Honie’s death sentence,” Stephenson wrote.

During a two-day commutation hearing this week, Honie asked the parole board to commute his sentence to life imprisonment, saying he would never have killed 49-year-old Claudia Benn after a day of heavy drinking and drug use if he had been in his “right mind.”

Honie said he wanted to live to support his mother and daughter. His lawyers did not immediately respond to phone and email messages seeking comment on the denial of the clemency request.

Benn’s family called on the parole board to approve his execution, saying they were devastated by their loss.

They described Benn as a pillar of their family and their community in southwest Utah – as a tribal council member, drug counselor and caregiver to their children and grandchildren.

Honie, who had an on-again, off-again relationship with Benn’s daughter, broke into the victim’s home in Cedar City, the tribal headquarters of the Paiute Indian Tribe in Utah, on July 9, 1998.

He repeatedly slit her throat and then stabbed her. Benn’s grandchildren, including Honie’s two-year-old daughter, were in the house at the time.

“The way he killed her is just sick. … An eye for an eye, as God says,” said Sarah China Azule, Benn’s niece, during her testimony.

Honie was convicted of aggravated murder in 1999. The judge who sentenced him to death found that Honie had sexually abused one of the children, which was one of the aggravating circumstances that led to this verdict.

During the hearing, Honie’s lawyers presented testimony describing his traumatic childhood on the Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona.

His parents, like many other Native Americans, had been placed in government boarding schools where abuse was common. The defense argued that they failed to learn parenting skills, were heavy drinkers and neglected Honie, who began drinking and using drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine as a teenager.

However, the state told the panel that Honie caused even greater trauma by killing Benn.

“Imagine the trauma that Honie’s cruel acts have left for generations to come,” said Assistant Attorney General Daniel Boyer.

There has been no execution in Utah since Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad in 2010.

Honie is one of six people awaiting execution in the state. The death sentence of a seventh defendant, Douglas Lovell, who killed a woman to prevent her from testifying against him in a rape trial, was overturned by the Utah Supreme Court on Thursday. He will be re-sentenced.

After decades of unsuccessful appeals, Honie’s execution warrant was signed in June, despite defense objections to the planned combination of the sedative ketamine, the anesthetic fentanyl and potassium chloride to prevent cardiac arrest. When Honie’s lawyers sued, corrections officials agreed to switch to pentobarbital, but the case is still pending.

One of his lawyers had previously stated that the defense was reviewing information about the change and working to protect his constitutional rights.

“Significant uncertainty remains about the state’s last-minute execution plan,” said attorney Eric Zuckerman.

According to a court order Wednesday, prison officials agreed to give one of Honie’s lawyers access to a telephone during the execution in case an emergency motion needs to be filed.