Utah officials said Saturday they have changed the execution method for death row inmate Taberon Dave Honie from an experimental three-drug lethal injection to a known single-drug injection, according to The Salt Lake Tribute.

Honie was convicted and sentenced to death in 1999 for the murder of Claudia Benn, the mother of his then girlfriend. Honie has filed numerous unsuccessful appeals against his conviction and sentence.

On June 10, 2024, the Utah Fifth Judicial District Court issued an execution warrant for Honie scheduled for August 8, 2024. Honie sued Utah authorities in the Third Judicial District Court on July 11, 2024, challenging the administration of the experimental three-drug mixture.

The experimental injection would contain Ketamine, Fentanyl, and Potassium Chloride. Honie argued that Utah would be the first state to use Ketamine for lethal injection and that it “often causes paranoia, anxiety, powerful hallucinations, disorientation, distorted self-perception, and out-of-body experiences.” Honie feared that Fentanyl, even in large doses, would not reliably cause unconsciousness or painlessness and that it would “make him feel as if his chest had turned to stone, preventing him from breathing.” For Potassium Chloride, Honie claimed that because it stops the heart and because the doses of Ketamine and Fentanyl would not be effective at causing unconsciousness or painlessness, he would “feel as if his veins were set on fire and he is burned alive, followed by the terrible pain of cardiac arrest.”

Honie argues that the three-drug lethal injection creates “an unnecessary and substantial risk of serious harm,” contrary to the prohibition against “unnecessary severity and cruel and unusual punishment” in Article 1, Section 9 of the Utah Constitution.

Honie’s requested remedy was to temporarily or permanently prohibit Utah authorities from subjecting him to lethal injection until they “take reasonable and necessary steps to devise a new procedure … to carry out a lawful execution and to produce a new execution protocol … so that Honie may be executed in a constitutional manner.” He proposed an alternative method of execution, namely lethal injection with pentobarbital. Honie stated that ten states currently authorize the method of execution and argued that “the number of recent executions using pentobarbital clearly demonstrates that the drug is a viable, available, and easily implemented alternative to Utah’s current three-drug combination.”

On Friday, Utah officials asked the Third District to dismiss Honie’s lawsuit after they decided to replace the experimental three-drug lethal injection with the pentobarbital injection. They based their request on the fact that they had stopped the conduct that Honie sought to stop. They also asked that the lawsuit be dismissed on the grounds that Honie’s requested remedies would be contrary to the public interest. They explained that:

After 25 years of review and failed appeals, the State and the families and friends of Honie’s victim have a significant interest in the end of the trial and the completion of a lawful and constitutional sentence. Granting an order that would further delay the completion of Honie’s sentence is indeed not in the public interest.