Entries tagged with “Taberon Honie”
Policy Issues
Costs
,Secrecy
,Lethal Injection
,Native Americans
,Sep 11, 2024
See What Utah Spent on Its First Execution in 14 Years
Taberon Honie was an American Indian from the Hopi-Tewa community whose life was marked by poverty, substance abuse, and generational trauma. His parents were forced to attend Indian boarding schools, which were notoriously abusive and designed to strip Indian children of their cultural heritage. They later suffered from alcoholism and neglected Mr. Honie and his siblings. Mr. Honie first tried alcohol at age 5 and progressed to heroin and meth by the time he was a teenager.
Facts & Research
Clemency
,Jul 29, 2024
Articles of Interest: Salt Lake Tribune Calls for Clemency for Taberon Honie, Urges Abolition of Death Penalty
With Utah preparing for its first execution in 14 years, one of the state’s leading newspapers has issued a call not only to spare Taberon Honie, the prisoner set for execution on August 8, 2024, but to end the practice of capital punishment altogether. In a July 25 editorial, the Salt Lake Tribune highlights Mr. Honie’s abusive upbringing and his sincere remorse for the crime, saying his case for clemency “is strong.” The day after the editorial was published, the Utah Board of Pardons and…
Facts & Research
Clemency
,Jul 26, 2024
Analysis: Why Executive Officials Grant Clemency
In a new analysis, the Death Penalty Information Center has found that executive officials most often cite disproportionate sentencing, possible innocence, and mitigation factors such as intellectual disability or mental illness as reasons to grant clemency in capital cases. Ineffective defense lawyering and official misconduct are also common factors in clemency grants. While present in fewer cases, support for clemency from the victim’s family or a decisionmaker in the original trial, such…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Lethal Injection
,Jan 04, 2024
Utah Judge Clears the Way for Use of the Firing Squad
On December 22, 2023, Judge Coral Sanchez of Utah’s Third Circuit Court dismissed a lawsuit brought by five men on the state’s death row that challenged Utah’s two execution methods and protocols. Ralph Menzies, Troy Kell, Michael Archuleta, Douglas Carter, and Taberon Honie sought an order vacating Utah’s current execution protocols for lethal injection and firing squad and enjoining their future use. The prisoners argue that both methods constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the…
Executions
Methods of Execution
,Lethal Injection
,Nov 08, 2023
Utah Judge Hears Argument in Prisoners’ Lawsuit Against Execution Protocol
On October 26, 2023, Judge Coral Sanchez of Utah’s Third Circuit Court heard arguments in a lawsuit filed by five death-sentenced prisoners against the State in April. Ralph Menzies, Troy Kell, Michael Archuleta, Douglas Carter, and Taberon Honie seek an order vacating Utah’s current execution protocol and enjoining its use. The lawsuit argues that the State’s two-pronged protocol, with lethal injection as the default method of execution and firing squad as a backup, constitutes cruel and…