Family of Utah murder victim calls for ‘eye for an eye’ as inmate’s execution date nears

Relatives of a woman stabbed and killed in 1998 urged Utah authorities Tuesday to proceed with a death investigation next month. planned execution of the convicted murderer who gives an emotional testimony about a crime that she says still traumatizes her close-knit Native American community.

Taberon Dave Honie is asking Utah’s parole board to commute his death sentence to life in prison out of mercy so he can remain a part of his daughter and granddaughter’s lives. He faces lethal injection on August 8 for killing his girlfriend’s mother after a day of heavy drinking and drug use.

A decision is expected in the next few days.

No inmate has been executed in Utah since Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad in 2010. Honie is one of only seven inmates on the state’s death row.

Relatives of 49-year-old victim Claudia Benn testified toward the end of the two-day hearing that they opposed the commutation of the death sentence. They described Benn as a pillar of their family and community – as a tribal council member, drug counselor and caregiver to their children and grandchildren.

“Taberon, you stole from us,” her cousin Betsy China told the parole board. “For twenty-five years, we did not utilize her knowledge, her ability to read, understand and help us at a higher level.”

Honie, who had an on-again, off-again relationship with Benn’s daughter, broke into the victim’s southwestern Utah home in Cedar City, the tribal headquarters of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, on July 9, 1998, repeatedly slit her throat and then stabbed her in the genital area. Benn’s grandchildren – including Honie’s then-two-year-old daughter – were in the home at the time.

“You have shown so much disrespect to a woman, any woman,” China said.

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

Sarah China Azule, who said Benn was her aunt, testified that when she entered the house she found blood everywhere.

“She fought for her life. She also saved her grandchildren. That’s a strong Paiute woman,” Azule testified on the second day of the two-day hearing at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City.

“The way he killed her is just sick… an eye for an eye, as God says. Today is a sad day,” she said.

On Monday, Honie’s lawyers presented testimony describing his childhood trauma, which was partly the result of his alcohol-abusing parents. They and other residents of the Hopi Indian reservation where he grew up were state boarding schools which were often abusive.

Assistant Attorney General Daniel Boyer said Honie caused even more trauma by killing Benn.

“Imagine the trauma that Honie’s cruel acts have left for generations,” he said.

Boyer said Honie’s team had presented no evidence to challenge the death sentence, nor had it provided any “compelling” reasons why he should be granted clemency, such as specific examples of generosity or charity.

However, one of Honie’s attorneys, Therese Day, said testimony about how Honie’s childhood and substance abuse impacted the crime was new. Day said Honie can continue to be in his daughter and granddaughter’s lives if the panel allows him to serve his sentence in prison.

“He is asking you to keep him alive so that he and the rest of his family do not have to suffer more than they already do,” she said at the end of the hearing.

Honie told the five-member parole board: he was not in his right mind when he killed his Benn. He said he would not hurt anyone if his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

He said he never planned to kill Benn and did not remember much about the murder, but acknowledged that the attack had turned him into a “monster”.

“I have earned my place in prison. I ask this panel today to consider whether I should be allowed to continue living,” he said.

The state’s lawyers described his request for a commutation as “an abdication of responsibility in which he does not once acknowledge the cruel acts he committed.”

After decades of unsuccessful appeals, his execution warrant was signed last month, despite defense objections to the planned lethal drug combination of the sedative ketamine, the anesthetic fentanyl and potassium chloride to stop his heart. Honie’s lawyers filed suit, and correctional officials agreed to switch to pentobarbital.