Taberon Honie will have a hearing in July on his request to reduce the death sentence to life imprisonment

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Utah State Board of Pardons and Parole announced that it has granted death row inmate Taberon Honie a hearing on whether his sentence should be commuted to life in prison.

The hearing is scheduled to take place sometime in July, but the committee has not given a specific date. The hearing will take place before the full committee at the Utah State Correction Facility in Salt Lake City. An announcement of the hearing will be posted on bop.utah.gov and on the State of Utah’s Public Meeting and Notice website, according to a press release.

Honie is scheduled to be executed by the State of Utah on August 8. The hearing and the panel’s final decision were announced prior to that execution date.

“This critical step underscores the Board’s commitment to fairness, justice and integrity in Utah’s criminal justice system,” said UBPP Administrative Director Jennifer Yim.

According to a press release from the UBPP, the hearing process consists of five steps: filing the application, reviewing the application, granting or denying a hearing, conducting a hearing, and making a decision on whether to grant or deny the commutation request. In Honie’s case, only the last two steps remain to be completed.

“At the hearing, the complainant may give testimony and present arguments on the substantive issues raised in a particular petition,” Yim said. “The state may also give testimony and present arguments against the substantive issues raised in the particular petition. The panel will also give victims the opportunity to be heard at the hearing.”

Honie’s execution warrant was filed in the Fifth District Court in Iron County and signed by Chief Judge Jeffrey C. Wilcox on June 10.

Honie was convicted of murder in May 1999 and sentenced to death that same month. Earlier this year, the state of Utah filed an arrest warrant to carry out his execution after attempting to appeal his sentence.

According to court documents, Honie was charged with murdering Claudia Benn in the 1990s while attempting to commit other crimes, including rape with objects, sodomy, aggravated sexual assault, burglary, aggravated trespassing and aggravated child sexual abuse.

Honie was found guilty by the jury of the first five of these additional charges in the case. The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the aggravated child sexual abuse charge.

When Honie was arrested, he was covered in blood after slitting Benn’s throat and stabbing her with a kitchen knife. Benn was also bitten and sexually assaulted, and Honie used a rock to smash through a glass door to the patio.

Honie waived his right to a jury trial before being sentenced to death on May 24, 1999.