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SALT LAKE CITY — A man sentenced to be executed in Utah later this summer will receive a commutation hearing next month, fulfilling a request he made after his execution warrant was signed earlier this month.
The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole announced Friday that it had granted a commutation hearing for Taberon Honie that will take place sometime in July. Honie, 48, of Cedar City, is scheduled to be executed on Aug. 8 after he was convicted in 2002 of the 1998 sexual assault and killing of his ex-girlfriend's mother, Claudia Benn, in front of her three grandchildren.
"This pivotal step underscores the Board's commitment to fairness, justice, and integrity within Utah's criminal justice system," said Jennifer Yim, administrative director of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, in a statement.
A Utah judge signed an execution warrant on June 10 following multiple appeals and rulings over the past two decades that had upheld the sentence. Barring a commutation, Honie is slated to be the first person put to death under the state's new lethal injection concoction of ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride.
However, Honie and his lawyers filed a 45-page request on June 18 to have his death sentence commuted, which would switch his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In it, they argue that Honie "has always taken responsibility for and expressed remorse" for his actions, adding that "Honie's traumatic background, brain damage, long-standing substance abuse, and extreme intoxication affected his behavior at the time of the crime."
The exact date of the hearing has not yet been determined, but the five-member Board of Pardons will make a final decision on whether Honie should face life in prison or be executed.
Yim explained that Honie and his lawyers will be allowed to present testimony and "supporting arguments" for why his sentence should change, while the state will be allowed to do the same as to why it shouldn't if it opposes the measure. Victims will also be given a chance to speak at the hearing.
"The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole remains committed to fostering a process rooted in procedural justice and accountability while ensuring that every decision reflects these core principles," she said.
Next month's hearing will be the state's first commutation hearing since a request by Ronnie Lee Gardner was heard in 2010. The board ultimately denied Gardner's petition. He was then executed by firing squad on June 18, 2010, which remains the last time Utah carried out an execution to date.
