After a death row inmate sues, Utah officials offer an alternative method of execution to an experimental mix of three drugs – JURIST

According to The Salt Lake Tribute, Utah state officials said Saturday they have changed the method of execution for death row inmate Taberon Dave Honie from an experimental three-agent lethal injection to the familiar single-agent injection.

Honie was sentenced to death in 1999 for the murder of Claudia Benn, the mother of his then girlfriend. Honie has filed numerous unsuccessful appeals against his conviction and sentence.

On June 10, 2024, the Fifth District Court of Utah issued an execution warrant for Honie set for August 8, 2024. Honie sued Utah authorities in Third Judicial District Court on July 11, 2024, challenging the administration of the experimental triple-drug mixture.

The experimental injection would have contained ketamine, fentanyl, and potassium chloride. Honie argued that Utah would be the first state to use ketamine for lethal injection and that it “commonly produces paranoia, anxiety, intense hallucinations, disorientation, distorted self-perception, and out-of-body experiences.” Honie feared that fentanyl, even in high doses, could not reliably induce unconsciousness or pain relief and that it would make him “feel as if his chest had turned to stone, so he could not breathe.” As for potassium chloride, Honie claimed that it would stop the heart and since the ketamine and fentanyl doses would not be effective in inducing unconsciousness or pain relief, he would “feel as if his veins was set on fire and he is being burned alive, after which he is overcome by the excruciating pains of cardiac arrest.”

Honie argues that the triple-drug lethal injection poses “an unnecessary and substantial risk of serious harm,” which violates the prohibition of “unnecessary severity and cruel and unusual punishment” in Article 1, Section 9 of the Utah State Constitution.

Honie’s requested relief was to temporarily or permanently prohibit Utah authorities from subjecting him to lethal injection until they have “taken the appropriate and necessary steps to develop a new procedure… to conduct a lawful execution and to establish a new execution protocol… so that Honie can be executed in a constitutional manner.” He proposed an alternative method of execution, namely lethal injection with pentobarbital. Honie claimed that this method of execution is currently authorized in ten states, arguing that “the number of recent executions using pentobarbital clearly demonstrates that the drug is a viable, available, and readily implementable alternative to Utah’s current three-drug combination.”

On Friday, Utah authorities asked the Third Circuit to dismiss Honie’s lawsuit after the decision to replace the experimental three-drug lethal injection with pentobarbital injection. They based their request on the fact that they had stopped the conduct that Honie wanted to stop. They also asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed because Honie’s requested remedies would be contrary to the public interest. They state:

After 25 years of review and failed legal challenges, the State and the families and friends of Honie’s victims have a significant interest in ending the litigation and enforcing a lawful and constitutional sentence. Indeed, granting a temporary restraining order that would further delay the execution of Honie’s sentence is not in the public interest.