SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Attorney General's Office has filed a warrant, seeking to have death row inmate Taberon Honie executed.
Honie, who was convicted and sentenced to die for the 1998 murder of Claudia Benn, has exhausted his appeals, lawyers for the state wrote in a death warrant application filed in Cedar City's 5th District Court on Tuesday night. The U.S. Supreme Court last year refused to hear an appeal by Honie, setting the stage for his execution.
"Honie has no pending action challenging either his capital murder conviction or death sentence. He has exhausted state and federal remedies challenging his conviction and sentence. Therefore, no legal reason exists to delay issuing an execution warrant," deputy Utah Solicitor General Andrew Peterson wrote in the application for a death warrant.
In a statement to FOX 13 News, the Utah Attorney General's Office said: "Taberon Honie was convicted of aggravated murder 25 years ago in the 5th District for killing and sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend’s mother. During sentencing, the judge remarked, 'This is not a sentence I gave to the defendant. This is a sentence he has earned. If this isn’t a death penalty case under the statutes of the State of Utah and in this community, I don’t know what is.'"
Attorneys representing Honie did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. A judge has yet to schedule a hearing to sign the death warrant, which would set a date for an execution.
Taberon Honie is on death row for the murder of his girlfriend’s mother, Claudia Benn. He slit her throat and sexually assaulted her inside her Cedar City home in 1998. Benn’s grandchildren witnessed the killing, prosecutors said.
Honie is the second inmate that the state is seeking to execute this year. Currently, the state has also filed a death warrant application for Ralph Leroy Menzies. Both men could die by firing squad if their executions go forward (Utah has said in the past it does not have the chemicals necessary to carry out a lethal injection execution).
Honie is also part of a lawsuit challenging Utah's death penalty statutes that is currently being litigated in the Utah court system.
