ga('ads.send', { ET Friday. However this is a steptoward healing of broken hearts and shattered lives.". Justice Department Executes Dustin Honken, 3rd U.S. Execution In - NPR Dustin Honken, 52, who prosecutors said killed key witnesses to stop them from testifying in his case, received a lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.. "Honken has not demonstrated a likelihood of success on his claim that the 2019 Protocol is arbitrary and capricious based on its failure to consider the risk of flash pulmonary edema," the court of appeals wrote, citing language used in similar decisions. Lees execution, like Purkeys, went ahead only after the U.S. Supreme Court gave it a green light in a 5-4 decision hours before. Witnesses: Honken, girlfriend strangled little girls to keep them quiet [8], In the winter of 1993 or 1994, Honken went to Cutkomp and said he needed to destroy a pistol. Never nothing. His execution is fast approaching and he is scheduled to die on July 17th at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. [40] Circuit Judge David S. Tatel dissented, arguing the statute explicitly requires the federal government to follow state execution protocols. Dustin Lee Honken: US government executes 3rd federal inmate this week if(document.querySelector("#google_image_div")){ However, this decision was overturned since the government had never asked McNeese to cooperate in the case against Johnson. They sentenced him to death specifically for the brutality and senselessness of the childrens killings. ga('ads.send', { More: From meth to murder: How a small-town Iowa boy became the state's first death row inmate in 50 years. [] Never dream about it. Dustin Honken, 52, who prosecutors said killed key witnesses to stop them from testifying in his drugs case, received a lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute,. The single mother was a Navy veteran, an Elvis Presley fan, and tended to find the good in people. Anytime we needed anything, we were supposed to ask them, he said. The victims' family is expected to provide a written statement to the public at some point soon. Courtney Crowder, the Register's Iowa Columnist, traverses the state's 99 counties telling Iowans' stories. Inmate on death row may know secrets about Jodi Huisentruit case - WXOW hitType: 'event', }); Three death row convicts, Daniel Lewis Lee, Wesley Ira Purkey, and Dustin Honken were put to death last week in a series of first federal executions in 17 years in the United States. Youre killing an innocent man, He had said. In 1984, Honken plotted a bank robbery in which the person he would convince to commit the robbery for him would then be killed and thrown into a pond. Federal government executes third inmate this week after 17-year hiatus From meth to murder: How a small-town Iowa boy became the state's first death row inmate in 50 years, Timeline of events in the infamous 1993 Iowa murders, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Honken had earlier informed the judge in his drug case that he would plead guilty at the end of July. Daniel Lewis Lee, a white supremacist who killed a three-person family that includedan 8-year-old girl, and Wesley Ira Purkey, who raped, murdered, dismembered and dumped the body of a 16-year-old girl in a septic pond, were put to death Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. Dustin Lee Honken | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers [] Thought I'd have nightmares. DeGeus body was found a few miles from the wooded area. eventAction: 'load' However, he declined to rule on whether Honken likely had a role in the 1993 disappearances. Authorities had found almost 150 grams of pure meth in Nicholson's house, and he'd agreed to become an informant in exchange for leniency. Her memoir, "Corrections in Ink", came out in June 2022. I am sorry for what I have done, but I haven't done these heinous crimes the government accuses me of. }); The prosecution said he had every reason to kill the victims and presented 65 witnesses against him. "Finally justice is being done. MEAWW is an initialism for Media Entertainment Arts WorldWide. if(document.querySelector("#ads")){ May he rest in peace.". [8], For his cooperation, Cutkomp was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. [19], A judge initially barred McNeese from testifying against Johnson during her trial on the grounds that he was acting as a federal agent. Honken would become the first defendant from Iowa to die from capital punishment since 1963 if his lethal injection takes place as scheduled on Friday, July 17, 2020 in Terre Haute, Ind. He worked for Holland Construction in Forest City and later drove a semi for Schmidt Trucking of Britt. His fingers gradually stopped twitching, and his breathing became shallower until it stopped. [8], In the fall of 1995, Honken recruited a man named Dan Cobeen to help him manufacture meth. After several minutes his breathing became more labored. While awaiting trial, she met Robert Gene McNeese, a career criminal and informant who was serving a life sentence. is a staff writer whose book, "Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty," won the 2019 J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Book Award. Honken and the other three plaintiffs in the case argued that the use of pentobarbital could violate the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994. [] The maximum sentence sends a message to this defendant and other defendants who are thinking about taking things into their own hands that that conduct is unacceptable. Honken and Cutkomp were promptly arrested on federal drug-trafficking charges. Circuit vacated District Judge Chutkan's injunction in a per curiam decision. A judge later reduced her sentence to life behind bars. Can we count on your support today? Sep 25, 2004. [7] Another inmate said Honken killed "rats" and children "raised by rats". Honkens execution was the last one in this weeklong spree. Although Iowa abolished capital punishment in 1965, the crime was a federal case since it involved a continuing criminal enterprise. window.adsContainer = {"positionAfterTitle":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle5_Rel_Newrev","isOrganicUserAd":true,"max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position2":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_After_Title_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position3":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Below_Next_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position4":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position5":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle1_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position6":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle2_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position7":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle3_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position8":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle4_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position9":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle5_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position10":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle6_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position11":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle7_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position12":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle8_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position13":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle9_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position14":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle10_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position15":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle11_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position16":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle12_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"positionTop":{"code":"Article_Desktop_970x250_Header_Rel","isOrganicUserAd":false,"max_width":970,"max_height":250},"positionBottom":{"code":"Article_Desktop_Sidebar_Bottom_Rel_Newrev","isOrganicUserAd":true,"max_width":300,"max_height":600},"positionBottomRight":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_After_Title_Rel_Newrev","isOrganicUserAd":true,"max_width":336,"max_height":280}} The drapes were drawn, and cars near the house were parked chaotically, which was uncharacteristic of her daughter. After all appeals and injunctions were dismissed by various courts over the years, the 52-year-old was executed by lethal injection in the US Penitentiary in Terre Haute on July 17, 2020. Later that month, she was re-sentenced to life in prison without parole. Dustin eventually released his sister. Honken, 52, was pronounced dead at 4:36 p.m. Eastern time after officials at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, administered a lethal dose of pentobarbital, according to the Des Moines Register, which had a reporter present. But authoritiesneeded five things before they could begin to prove their case: the bodies. Dustin Honken third person executed by federal government this week [2] Honken and Johnson were in a relationship at the time of the murders, and Johnson, who had a child from a previous marriage, was pregnant by Honken. I am deeply sorry. This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever.". Moreover, Terry informed his mother that he was meeting his former girlfriend, Angela Johnson. }); [7], During Honken's capital murder trial, his mitigation expert, Lisa Rickert, wrote to his lawyers that not only had she struggled to find any possible mitigation, what she discovered only further cast Honken in a negative light. The portable restrooms cost $1,605. Even if I'm in prison for [] 15 years, whatever. Federal court appeals later described their relationship while dismissing claims that there was substantial mitigation in his upbringing: The movant's mother provided a stable, nurturing and loving environment, never abandoned him, did not fail to provide any sort of safe space or comfort to him, never neglected him, never failed to calm him or tell him that things were going to be okay, acted as a loving caretaker and facilitated the movant's attachment to her by making herself available to him. But nearly seven years after five people went missing, including witnesses scheduled to testify against Honken regarding his meth operation, a mobbed-up jailhouse informant would lead investigators to the victims bodies and a murder plot would unravel. His father, Jim, a drunken schemer, held powerful sway over his two sons, Jeff and Dustin, Honkens sister, AlyssaNelson, said during her brothers murder trial. TERRE HAUTE, Ind. [7], Honken said he planned to plead guilty, and a hearing was scheduled for July 30, 1993. That stint was short-lived, however, as he was picked up on new drug charges when his garage was raided in 1996. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Follow her on Twitter @courtneycare. I had just returned to my cell from a hospital stay when I first learned that Lee, and three othersWesley Purkey, Dustin Honken and Keith Nelson had been given execution dates. Who Were Dustin Lee Honken's Victims? How Did He Die? When the time of death was announced, Honken, 52, became the first Iowan in more than 50 years to be put to death in an Iowa case. Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965, but Honken was convicted in federal court becausehe killed government witnesses, interfering with a federal case. Twitter So, who were Dustins victims, and what happened to the drug kingpin? Their primary target that day was Lori Duncans then-boyfriend, Greg Nicholson, who also lived at the home and was also killed. Prison officials stated that Purkey owing to his mental illness lacked in understanding and put aside the pecan pie in his last meal for later. document.querySelector("#ads").addEventListener('click',function(){ Days before each cluster of executions last summer, the Bureau of Prisons shipped in dozens of extra staff for training in preparation for the event, as it is elliptically referred to in records. Honken's execution was the last one in this weeklong spree. Email Honkens mother, brother and college-age daughter visited him in prison in recent days, she said. Dustin Lee Honken was born in Britt, Iowa, on March 22, 1968, and suffered from an abusive childhood. This page was last edited on 28 April 2023, at 10:41. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. According to his attorneys, he recited a poem by a Jesuit priest in his final statement. Honken, whose crimes struck at the foundation of the U.S. justice system, always seemed the least likely to win a reprieve from the courts. Although it was Honken who pulled the trigger, killing three adults and two children, Angela Johnson received the death penalty for four of the victims, while Honken was sentenced to death for only the . Michael Conroy/AP [3] A few months later, the fifth victim, also a former dealer, was murdered.[3]. Dustin Honken execution: The trail of crime that put Iowan on death row window.googletag.pubads().addEventListener('impressionViewable', function(event) { 2d 663", "Judge removes Iowa woman from death row", "Dustin Lee Honken - Federal Execution - July 17, 2020", "Judge temporarily stops execution of north Iowa mass murderer Dustin Honken", "Supreme Court keeps federal executions, including that of Iowa murderer Dustin Lee Honken, on hold", "Administration seeks resumption of federal executions", "Federal Executions Can Restart After Supreme Court Declines a Case", "Higher courts rebuff late legal efforts, Iowan Dustin Honken put to death", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1993_Iowa_murders&oldid=1152124538. His biological father, Jim Honken, allegedly beat him, was an alcoholic, and served time in federal prison after committing multiple bank robberies. Honken is set to die by a lethal. In 2004, Dustin Lee Honken was convicted on federal charges in execution-style slayings of five people in Iowa. ga('ads.send', { The inmate known for his verbosity at hearings and for a rambling statement declaring his innocence at sentencing spoke only briefly, neither addressing victims family members nor saying he was sorry. [33] Johnson is currently serving her sentence at FCI Waseca. She said goodbye to her friends in the evening. The two-night hotel stay cost around $200, and the tab was picked up by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. [7][19], Honken was charged with the murders in 2001. In 2005, Tokars stopped an attempted escape by Honken, in which he plotted to escape with the help of white supremacists and murder witnesses. 'I'm Still Processing it,' Daughter of Honken Victim Speaks Out After "[30] She called him a "sociopath who will never admit to what he has done. Nearly three decades after Dustin Honkens crime spree gripped Iowa, the small-town boy turned murderous meth kingpin was executed Friday at the Federal Correctional Complex. [24] Tokars testified that Honken described strangling Lori Duncan and Greg Nicholson, and killed the children since "they could have been witnesses." Email His then-wife, Leslie Olson, said he prevented her from going outside or staying near windows for very long. The night before his disappearance, he dropped his 10-year-old daughter off at his mother's house and said he was going to meet Johnson. Dustin Honken, a convicted murderer of 5 people, sits on death row. Honken, 52, was sentenced to die in October 2005 after being convicted of numerous offenses, including five counts of murder among them two small children during the course of a continuing criminal enterprise. "[17][18], U.S. District Judge Mark W. Bennett imposed sentencing enhancements on Honken for attempting to obstruct justice and having a major role in the conspiracy, and granted a deduction for Honken accepting responsibility. Honken, who had been on death row since 2005, was pronounced dead at 4:36 p.m. When the time of death was. Honken was involved in the manufacturing of methamphetamine, and one of his dealers was set to testify against him, so Honken and Johnson murdered him . Marge and her husband drove by later and let themselves in after feeling convinced something was wrong. [3] Johnson was also sentenced to death, the first woman sentenced to death by a United States federal jury since the 1950s, but the sentence was overturned in 2012,[5] and she was resentenced to life without parole in 2014. Honken had a notably healthy relationship with his mother, who he described as perfect. Death-row inmate Dustin Lee Honken, who killed a family of four, including two children and another person, was executed on Friday, July 17, at 4 pm local time, marking the government's third federal execution in a month after 17 years. 0. [7], Over the next few weeks, Nicholson became extremely paranoid. During the sentencing phase, the prosecution said Honken, who they described as an "evil mastermind", deserved to die since he had committed mass murder, killed children, killed a second time months after committing the four initial murders, showed no remorse, and had continued to try to escape prison and commit even more murders while in maximum security prisons. He also pointed to Honken's youth, saying, "The court needs to consider his age. The Archbishop of Newark, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, had written to President Donald Trump in early July 2020 asking him to commute Honken's sentence, claiming that he had witnessed Honken's "spiritual growth in faith and compassion". The government paid for snacks, drinks and pizza. His final words were a reciting of the poem Heaven-Heaven by Gerard Manley Hopkins: "I have desired to go, where springs not fail, to fields where flies no sharp and sided hail, and a few lilies blow. The government is doing so much of this in the dark, so we dont always get to see the full weight of what its up to, said Cassy Stubbs, director of the ACLUs Capital Punishment Project. This timehis co-conspirator, Cutkomp,turned states witness, collecting Honkens musings about destroying evidence, buying a gun and eliminating investigators and others who he thought would testify against him. [39] Circuit Judges Gregory G. Katsas and Neomi Rao wrote concurring opinions concluding that Honken may be executed, but for different reasons. Although details of his last meal were not revealed, Honken, in his last words, recited a poem by an English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ called Heaven-Heaven. Even as it paid for tents and memory cards and planes and pizza, the agencys largesse did not extend to the families of the condemned, who had to pay for their own travel and accommodations. The first in the spate federal executions happened Tuesday, when Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death for killing a family in the 1990s as part of a plot to build a whites-only nation. He said Honken was "a young man infatuated with drug manufacturing, basically a nerd.[7]. According to court documents, Angela bought a gun on July 7, 1993, and she and Dustin began hunting Greg down, with him divorcing his ex-wife and moving in with Lori and her children. Theyre willing to go to extraordinary lengths in terms of spending our money and then hiding the footprints of it.. We have real reasons to question whether or not this number now is complete either, Stubbs said. While in prison, Angela Johnson confessed to the murders to another prisoner who became an informant, supplying all the details and a hand-drawn map of the bodies location all handed over to the authorities. pg.acq.push(function() { Upon appeal, Angela Johnson's death sentence was reduced to life in prison. [20][21], During his resentencing hearing in January 2000, Honken, asked for leniency, saying he had successfully participated in a drug rehabilitation program and taken educational programs. On another occasion, Honken tried to drown Alyssa in a hotel pool. Other van rentals for shuttling around staff and witnesses totaled at least $4,500 over the five executions, while a bus rental cost $6,330. During the summer of 2020, Dustin Honken After finishing a year of community college chemistry classes with an A-minus, Honken, decided to become both a drug manufacturer and a dealer using what he had learned. Iowa meth kingpin Dustin Honken executed, third federal execution this Using a ruse to gain entry, Johnson and Honken did make a video of Nicholson denying his previous police statements, but then bound and gagged the adults, forced the children to pack bags and walked them at gunpoint to their car. The man they killed today could have spent the rest of his days helping others and further redeeming himself., In a statement, Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said just punishment has been carried out.. hitType: 'event', [7] He and Johnson passed notes through the food slot in his door about their lives in jail and their childhoods. Iowa meth kingpin is 3rd executed by U.S. government this week Dustin Honken Executed: Third Federal Government Execution This Week Maurice Chammah At his sentencing in 2005, Honken denied killing anybody, but Donoghue said she never heard him say he was innocent. Keith Dwayne Nelson, who kidnapped and raped a 10-year-old girl, is scheduled to be executed Aug. 28. Not only that, the police found Terry DeGeus body in a field a few miles from the crime scene. On October 14, 2004, Honken was convicted of all 17 counts against him, including five counts of murder in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise. NPR's Carrie Johnson contributed to this report. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), Iowa drug kingpin who killed 5 set for execution Friday - NBC News The Dustin Honken they wanted to kill is long gone. Its also not clear how many prison workers flew to Indiana or how many nights they stayed, but Mueller said at least a few guards were at the Holiday Inn with him and other witnesses in July. However, he and Tim were arrested on federal drug trafficking charges in March 1993. The federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind., has been the site of three federal executions in a week, including Friday's of Dustin Lee Honken. The federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind., is shown, July 17, 2020. ga('ads.send', { Honken had physically and verbally abused his sister, Alyssa. Among them were many of the inmates to whom Honken had confessed, including Fred Tokars. By 1992, their multi-state ring was netting hundreds of thousands of dollars. But what Honken didnt know in early 1993 was that Nicholson had decided to cooperate with federal investigators, wearing a wire toa meet and recordingHonken makinga $3,000 deal for a future meth pickup. Dustin Honken is led by federal marshals to a waiting car after the second day of jury selection in federal court in Sioux City, Iowa, on 2004. . Dustin Honken, a nerd turned drug kingpin, will become the only Iowan since 1963 to have the death sentence an Iowa jury imposed seen through on Friday, July 17, 2020. But days after the still-undiscovered killings of Nicholson and the Duncans, he told the court he would stick to his not guilty plea. Investigators found the Nicholson and Duncan bodies only seven years after the killings, in 2000, after Johnson scrawled out a map showing a jailhouse informant where they were buried. hide caption. As the investigation into Honken continued, he killed another drug dealer working with him, Terry DeGeus, beating him with a bat and shooting him. Without any witnesses, the government was forced to drop its case against Honken. The 52-year-old died by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he's been on death row since 2005. The two eventually located Nicholson. He killed five people, including two young girls, in 1993. Dustin Lee Honken was formally sentenced to death on October 11, 2005. Dustin Honken, who prosecutors said killed key witnesses to stop them from testifying in his drugs case, received a lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.. The crime Honken was executed for started as a missing-persons case tangentially connected to a federal drug trafficking charge. Yet, Marge knew foul play was involved as she never heard from her daughter or grandchildren again. Honken was sentenced to death and executed by the federal government on July 17, 2020,[4] the first defendant from Iowa to be executed since 1963. The clock is ticking: Execution date approaching for convicted - KWWL
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