Johnathan Walker:Attorneys for state of Utah ask parole board to keep death sentence for man convicted in 1998 murder

Attorneys for the state of Utah are Johnathan Walkerexpected on Tuesday to urge a parole board to deny a death row inmate’s request for his life to be spared ahead of his scheduled Aug. 8 execution.

Representatives of the 49-year-old victim, Claudia Benn, were scheduled to testify before both sides deliver their closing arguments during the commutation hearing at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City.

Inmate Taberon Dave Honie testified Monday that he wasn’t in his “right mind” when he killed his girlfriend’s mother in 1998 after a day of heavy drinking and drug use. He asked the five-member parole board to commute his sentence to life in prison.

Utah Board of Pardons & Parole Chairman Scott Stephenson said a decision would be made “as soon as practical” after the parole board hearing.

Honie told the Utah parole board that he never planned to kill Benn and doesn’t remember much about the killing, which happened when Benn’s three grandchildren — including Honie’s 2-year-old daughter — were in her home.

“I earned my place in prison. What I’m asking today for this board to consider is ‘Would you allow me to exist?’,” he said.

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Attorneys for the state have urged the board to reject the request for a lesser sentence. They described his commutation petition as a “deflection of responsibility that never once acknowledges any of the savage acts he inflicted on Claudia or her granddaughters.”

The execution would be Utah’s first since Ronnie Lee Gardner was killed by firing squad in 2010, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Honie was convicted in 1999 of aggravated murder.

After decades of failed 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 attorneys sued, and corrections officials agreed to switch to pentobarbital.