Texas and Utah: Two executions within a few hours – Arthur Burton and Taberon Honie

Within just five hours, the death sentences of Arthur Lee Burton and Taberon Dave Honie were carried out in the US states of Texas and Utah.

Texas

On Wednesday evening, 54-year-old Arthur Lee Burton was executed in Huntsville in the US state of Texas with a lethal injection, an overdose of pentobarbital. He was sentenced to death for assaulting a 48-year-old mother of three and jogger in 1997, attempting to rape her and eventually strangling her with her shoelaces, prosecutors said.

Hours before the scheduled injection, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a defense motion to intervene. Burton’s attorneys had argued that reports from two expert witnesses and the record showed that Burton “scored low on tests of learning, reasoning, comprehension of complex ideas, problem solving and suggestibility, all of which are examples of significant limitations in intellectual functioning.”

They had argued that the evidence was strong evidence of mental retardation, which “categorically exempts him from the death penalty. However, the prosecution argued that Burton had not previously made any claims of intellectual disability and that he had waited until eight days before his scheduled execution to do so.

The Supreme Court had banned the execution of mentally disabled people in 2002. However, it has given states some discretion in determining such disabilities.

“I want to thank all the people who are supporting me and praying for me,” Burton said when asked by the warden if he wanted to make a closing statement, his voice breaking repeatedly after a few words. “I wish we didn’t have to be here right now, but I want you to know that I’m sorry for doing this to you and my family. I am no better than anyone else. I hope I can find peace, and I hope you all can too.”

Utah

Early Thursday morning shortly after midnight, 48-year-old Taberon Dave Honie was executed by the state of Utah with a lethal injection, an overdose of pentobarbital. He was sentenced to death for murdering his ex-girlfriend’s mother in 1998.

Honie called his ex-girlfriend – with whom he shared a daughter – on the day of the crime and demanded that she meet him, threatening to kill her family if she did not. He had made these kinds of threats before, but without putting them into action.

This time, under the influence of alcohol and drugs, he broke into the house, started a fight with his ex-girlfriend’s mother and killed her with a butcher knife she had used to defend herself.

The victim was the grandmother of Taberon Honie’s own daughter, and the murder divided the family. The victim’s daughter and other relatives urged the authorities to carry out the death penalty, while Honie’s daughter and others pleaded for his life.

“I don’t know how I can ask you to spare me even though I killed C,” Honie said at his recent commutation hearing. “But I owe it to my daughter and my mother to come and ask if there is a way.” But the clemency board denied Honie’s request, as did the governor afterward.

It was the first execution in Utah since 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad. The last execution by lethal injection in Utah was 25 years ago.

Sources:
https://apnews.com/article/texas-execution-arthur-lee-burton-jogger-a92b884d8c49840c53a8ee9d5398428a
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2024/08/08/utah-executes-taberon-honie-by/