By Ella Rose Lipton
WASHINGTON, DC – Arthur Burton and Taberon Honie—in two parts of the country—were executed by lethal injection within hours of one another this past Aug. 8.
Their deaths raise the total number of inmates executed this year in the U.S. to 12, reports Death Penalty Information Center.
In July 1997, Burton raped then killed Nancy Adleman, a mother of three, in Houston on her daily run, explains USA Today. In a recent article, ABC describes Honie’s crimes which occurred less than a year later in Utah: Honie raped and murdered his then-girlfriend’s mother, Claudia Benn while she babysat in her living room.
These two men, convicted of their crimes, were both sentenced to death. Honie waited about 25 years on death row for the inevitable KUER 90.1 reports.
For Burton, there was a moment where it seemed his life would be spared, reports NC Lawyers Weekly, noting “his death sentence was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2000. He received another death sentence at a new punishment trial in 2002.”
Throughout Burton’s time on death row, his attorneys filed “numerous appeals” including two in July, one of which was filed eight days before his death with new information regarding Burton’s intellectual disability, stated CBS.
CBS added that the “intellectual disability” (based on tests observing Burton’s lack of intelligence), according to the 1986 Supreme Court ruling, would “categorically exempt (Burton) from the death penalty.” Despite their pleas, the appeals were denied.
According to ABC, “The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole denied Honie’s petition to commute his sentence to life in prison after a July hearing during which Honie’s attorneys described his troubled childhood growing up on the reservation with parents who abused alcohol.”
As described in ABC’s report, Honie explains he began using hard drugs as a teenager and said he “wouldn’t have killed Benn if he had been in his ‘right mind.’ He asked the board to allow him ‘to exist’ so he could be a support for his daughter.”
The Equal Justice Initiative writes the death penalty has been a topic of heated debate for centuries with opinions growing ever divergent as tensions rise nationally and abroad.
Anti-death-penalty advocates are not just rooted in the numerous human rights violations the method poses, but more so the flawed American Justice System and the disproportional effects on those less fortunate and people of color because of racial bias among other factors, states the Equal Justice Initiative.
In an interview with USA Today, Claudia Benn’s daughter says she feels relieved she can now put the past behind her, adding she believes “…justice is ‘finally happening,’ at least Honie could prepare for the day.”
Instead of watching the execution, Claudia Benn’s daughter spent time with her family; outside the prison where Honie was executed “a group of anti-death penalty protesters sang ‘Amazing Grace’ and held signs that said, ‘All life is precious,’” reported ABC.
Americans agree the death penalty is expensive, according to Amnesty International USA, adding, “…the estimated cost of a death penalty case was 70 percent more than the cost of a comparable non-death penalty case…(median cost $1.26 million).”
AI notes that the methods of execution are not 100 percent effective; if botched, these methods can cause prolonged unnecessary pain.
After Honie was executed, his lawyers put out a statement expressing their sympathy, and they believed Honie wasn’t the same person he was 26 years ago, stating, “Mr. Honie’s life had value—he was worthy of redemption, and not being judged solely by his worst actions.”
