SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Just three days before death row inmate Taberon Honie is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday, Aug. 8, his counsel sent a letter to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to seek a temporary reprieve of the execution, saying the process is “shrouded in secrecy.”
The letter to the governor said Honie’s upcoming execution would be the first lethal injection in Utah in more than 25 years, and Honie’s counsel said the Utah Department of Corrections was risking “dangerous outcomes” in its “hasty rush to prepare for an execution.”
The letter asked Cox to “instruct” UDC to update its protocols, which Honie’s counsel said have not been updated since 2010. Honie’s counsel said the state’s “refusal to update its protocols also violates state law.”
Honie’s counsel asked Cox for “a temporary reprieve” to ensure the drugs for Honie’s execution are “safe and effective,” as well as to ensure the process is transparent.
“Transparency is the hallmark of a free society, yet this process has been anything but transparent,” Honie’s counsel Therese Day and Eric Zuckerman said in the letter.
The letter said the Department of Corrections changed the method of execution for Honie three times. Honie’s counsel said the lethal injection drug combination that was initially chosen was publicly undisclosed.
The letter said the next untested combination of ketamine, fentanyl, and potassium chloride was reportedly chosen after the more commonly used drug pentobarbital was said to be unavailable.
“This plan was supported by an anonymous pharmacist willing to prescribe the drugs in violation of state law,” the letter said.
Honie’s counsel also said that when the lethal injection drug once again changed — this time to pentobarbital, which has been used in past executions — it was coming at a much higher price from a “secret, anonymous source.”
Honie’s counsel said in the letter that the source of the pentobarbital is reportedly being kept secret from both Honie and the public, after an anonymous person offered to connect the Director of the Utah Department of Corrections with the anonymous supplier.
The letter also raised concerns about how the pentobarbital for Honie’s execution was being stored.
“There is no way to verify the storage conditions due to the extreme level of secrecy imposed by the Department and since the Department may not even take possession of the drug until three days before the execution, which leaves no time for proper vetting,” the letter said.
Honie’s counsel claimed the Attorney General’s Office did not provide the Department of Corrections with advance notice of the Aug. 8 execution date, and the department’s unawareness of the execution date led to multiple changes in the execution methods to be used.
The letter continued to say that there are other issues associated with pentobarbital and that UDC has not revised its lethal injection protocol since 2010, which is when the last person was executed by firing squad in Utah.
Post a Comment