Taberon Honie loses last appeal, will be sentenced to death

SALT LAKE CITY ( ABC4 ) — Utah death row inmate Taberon Honie will face the death penalty after the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole (UBPP) declined to downgrade his sentence to life in prison.

“After carefully reviewing all submitted information and considering all arguments from the parties, the Board does not find sufficient cause to commute Mr. Honie’s death sentence,” stated a release from the UBPP Friday afternoon.

Honie’s request for mercy was denied after a two-day deliberation during which the board heard from Honie’s attorneys as well as the family of the victim .

As attorneys brought up points regarding Honie’s childhood trauma and his desire to stay in the lives of his daughter and granddaughter, victims described their own pain from losing Claudia Benn, the woman attacked and killed by Honie in 1998.

Honie was convicted of aggravated murder in 1999 after sexually assaulting and killing Benn, his ex-girlfriend’s mother, in the presence of three of her grandchildren — including his then 2-year-old daughter.

In addition to aggravated murder, Honie was also convicted of object rape, forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual assault, burglary, and aggravated burglary.

Today’s decision was essentially Honie’s last chance to avoid the death penalty. He is currently scheduled to be put to death on Aug. 8.

Honie will be executed using a single drug called pentobarbital instead of the allegedly untested drug concoction previously decided by the state of Utah, according to the Associated Press . The change came after Honie’s defense attorneys argued the concoction could cause “excruciating suffering.”

Honie will be the first person executed in Utah since Ronnie Lee Gardner was put to death by a firing squad in 2010. Honie is one of just seven inmates on death row in the state.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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