Utah’s parole board announced Friday afternoon that it will hold a commutation hearing for death row inmate Taberon Honie, who has asked the board to stop his scheduled execution later this summer and instead allow him to live the rest of his life in prison.
Jennifer Yim, the administrative director for the Utah Boards of Pardon and Parole, called this a “pivotal step” that she said shows the board’s commitment to fairness and integrity within Utah’s criminal justice system. The five-member parole board is now expected to hold a hearing in July, and the board is expected to rule before Honie’s scheduled Aug. 8 execution.
“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,” Yim said.
The board’s announcement comes two weeks after Honie filed a petition asking its members to spare his life. It’s one of the last steps that Honie, 48, and from the Hopi-Tewa tribal community, can take to try to stop his execution.
In response, Utah attorney general’s office filed a 56-page document last week arguing that Honie didn’t deserve the chance to have a commutation hearing. A copy of the filing was released to The Salt Lake Tribune Friday in response to a public records request.
The state attorneys said that converting his sentence to life without parole is an “extraordinary measure” which allows the parole board to show him mercy. But that mercy, they argued, is not deserved.
In July 1998, Honie called his ex-girlfriend and demanded she visit him, threatening to kill her family if she refused. Later that evening, sometime before midnight, Honie took a cab to the house of Claudia Benn, his ex-girlfriend’s mother. He broke the door in with a rock and then beat, bit, stabbed and sexually assaulted Benn as he killed her, court documents state.
“There is no question about Honie’s guilt; he does not — and cannot — contend otherwise,” the A.G. response reads. “There is also no question about the brutality and heinous nature of his crime, although Honie’s petition does not begin to confront those facts and instead euphemizes what he did as a ‘tragic death,’ the consequence of a ‘domestic dispute.’”
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