The last execution in Utah was carried out just after midnight on August 8, 2024, when the state put Taberon Dave Honie to death by lethal injection at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City. He was pronounced dead at 12:25 a.m. It was Utah’s first execution in fourteen years and the eighth the state has carried out since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.1CBS News. Utah Carries Out Its First Execution Since 2010
Who Was Taberon Dave Honie
Honie was 48 at the time of his death and had spent twenty-five years on death row. In July 1998 he broke into a home in Cedar City and killed Claudia Benn, a Paiute tribal member and substance abuse counselor who was his girlfriend’s mother. He repeatedly slashed her throat and stabbed her. Children were in the home during the attack, and Honie admitted sexually assaulting one of Benn’s grandchildren.1CBS News. Utah Carries Out Its First Execution Since 20102Utah News Dispatch. Victims Family Calls for Execution of Death Row Inmate Taberon Honie
The Fifth District Court sentenced him to death in 1999 after a conviction for aggravated murder, with the judge citing the murder itself and the sexual abuse of the child as aggravating factors.3Utah Department of Corrections. Taberon Dave Honie Execution Press Release
Appeals, Commutation, and a Final Request to the Governor
Honie pursued state and federal appeals for more than two decades, all unsuccessful. In March 2023 he joined four other death row inmates in a lawsuit arguing Utah’s death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment; a judge dismissed the case that December. The Utah Attorney General’s Office filed for an execution warrant on May 1, 2024, after determining his appeals were exhausted, and a judge signed the warrant on June 10. The Utah Supreme Court denied extraordinary relief on July 8, and another judge declined to block the execution on July 30.4ABC4 News. Taberon Honie Timeline
The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole granted a commutation hearing in late June. At the hearing beginning July 22, Honie testified he had not planned to kill Benn and would not have done so in his “right mind,” and his attorneys emphasized that he was severely intoxicated during the crime. On July 26 the Board declined to commute the sentence, finding no “sufficient cause” to do so. On August 5, Honie’s lawyers asked Governor Spencer Cox for a temporary reprieve, alleging the execution process had been “shrouded in secrecy” and rushed. Cox denied the request the next day.4ABC4 News. Taberon Honie Timeline
How the Execution Was Carried Out
Pentobarbital was the drug used. Honie delivered his final statement at 12:03 a.m., and the injection began a minute later. A second dose was administered at 12:13 a.m. The EKG showed a flatline at 12:21 a.m., and he was pronounced dead at 12:25 a.m.5KUER. Utah Executes Death Row Inmate Taberon Honie by Lethal Injection
His final words were: “From the start it’s been, if it needs to be done for them to heal, let’s do this. If they tell you you can’t change, don’t listen to them. To all my brothers and sisters in here, continue to change. I love you all. Take care.”3Utah Department of Corrections. Taberon Dave Honie Execution Press Release
Members of Claudia Benn’s family witnessed the execution. Utah Department of Corrections Director Brian Redd said afterward that “no one involved today takes joy in carrying out this responsibility, but we recognize it as one of our statutory duties, and we take it seriously.” Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes acknowledged the “deeply held beliefs, powerful emotions and divergent views regarding the death penalty” and said the state carried out the sentence with “seriousness and solemnity.”5KUER. Utah Executes Death Row Inmate Taberon Honie by Lethal Injection
Why Fourteen Years Had Passed
Before Honie, the last person executed in Utah was Ronnie Lee Gardner, killed by firing squad on June 18, 2010. The gap between the two executions came down to logistics: pharmaceutical supply chains dried up, medical professionals refused to participate, and the state struggled to procure lethal injection drugs. Director Redd said that before the state’s new secrecy law passed, Utah had “no luck” securing cooperation, making it “almost impossible to obtain the drugs or hire contractors.”6Utah News Dispatch. Law Passed in Utah Made Taberon Honie Execution More Secretive
The $288,000 Price Tag
The Utah Department of Corrections reported that Honie’s execution cost more than $288,000, a figure that did not include the legal expenses of decades of appeals. The largest line item was $260,906 for medical services and supplies, roughly $200,000 of which went to purchasing pentobarbital from an anonymous source. Personnel and overtime cost about $11,000, and supplies and equipment added another $16,800.7Utah News Dispatch. Cost of Utah Execution Taberon Honie
Honie’s attorney said Utah’s $200,000 pentobarbital price was “more than twice what any other state has paid.” Corrections officials had initially planned a three-drug cocktail of ketamine, fentanyl, and potassium chloride, estimated at $7,900. After news coverage of the untested combination drew legal scrutiny, the state switched to pentobarbital.8KSL TV. What We Know About the Drug Utah Plans to Use in Upcoming Execution
SB109 and Secrecy Around the Process
Governor Cox signed SB109 on February 16, 2024. The law prevents the release of “identifying information” about anyone involved in an execution, including the medical team and drug suppliers. Unlike secrecy statutes in some other states, Utah’s version includes no carveouts for litigation; the information cannot be used as evidence in court or released during legal discovery.9News From the States. How a Law Passed Earlier This Year Made Executions in Utah a More Secretive Process
Supporters, including Director Redd and bill sponsor Sen. Derrin Owens, said the secrecy was necessary because pharmacies and medical professionals are often unwilling to participate in executions due to ethical objections or fear of public backlash. The American Medical Association’s Code of Ethics prohibits physicians from participating in executions, and pharmaceutical companies and the European Union have restricted drug sales for this purpose.6Utah News Dispatch. Law Passed in Utah Made Taberon Honie Execution More Secretive Critics, including the Death Penalty Information Center, said the secrecy prevented the public from knowing how government resources were being spent and who was conducting executions.8KSL TV. What We Know About the Drug Utah Plans to Use in Upcoming Execution
Who Is Left on Utah’s Death Row
The next scheduled execution after Honie’s was to be Ralph Leroy Menzies, convicted in 1988 of the 1986 abduction and murder of Maurine Hunsaker. Menzies had chosen the firing squad, and his execution was set for September 5, 2025. The Utah Supreme Court blocked it on August 29, 2025, finding he had “adequately alleged a substantial change of circumstances” regarding his health and “raised a significant question on his fitness to be executed.”10CNN. Utah Supreme Court Blocks Death Penalty Firing Squad Execution
Menzies, 67, had severe vascular dementia. A court-appointed psychologist concluded in November 2025 that he was “unaware of the crime he was convicted of” and did not understand that he was facing execution. Before a competency hearing scheduled for December 2025 could take place, Menzies died of apparent natural causes at a hospital on November 26, 2025.11Utah Department of Corrections. Inmate Ralph L. Menzies Passes Away12CBS News. Utah Death Row Inmate Ralph Leroy Menzies Dies
His death reduced Utah’s death row to three inmates: Troy Michael Kell, convicted in 1996 of stabbing a fellow inmate sixty-seven times at the Central Utah Correctional Facility and set to die by firing squad;13Justia. Kell v. Benzon Michael Anthony Archuleta, convicted in 1989 for the torture and murder of Gordon Church; and Von Lester Taylor, sentenced in 1991 for two murders.14KSL NewsRadio. Who Are Utahs Other Death Row Prisoners Awaiting Execution None has a scheduled execution date.
Utah has not issued a new death sentence since 2008, and inmates currently on death row have been there an average of nearly thirty-four years.15KUTV. Utah Moving Away From Capital Punishment With Fewer Sentences, Executions
A New Law to Speed Up the Timeline
Menzies’ death after decades of appeals helped drive legislative action. In early 2026 the Utah House passed HB495 by 56 to 13, and the Senate advanced it. Sponsored by Rep. Candice Pierucci and developed with the Utah Attorney General’s Office, the bill aims to shorten the average death penalty timeline from thirty-four years to roughly twenty. It limits the window for defendants to challenge mental fitness or argue ineffective counsel, prohibits competency motions within twenty-one days of a scheduled execution absent a doctor’s affidavit, and requires that death penalty appeals be prioritized atop state court dockets.16Utah News Dispatch. Utah Bill to Speed Up Timeline on Death Penalty Moves Forward Governor Cox signed HB495 into law.17ACLU of Utah. HB495 Capital Felony Case Amendments
The Utah Defense Lawyers Association and the ACLU of Utah say the law removes critical legal guardrails and could lead to unconstitutional executions by restricting the ability of defendants to raise issues about cognitive disabilities and mental competency.18News From the States. Utah Bill Would Speed Death Penalty Cases, Critics Say It Takes Away Legal Guardrails