Honken has latest appeal denied, likely more appeals prior to this afternoon’s scheduled execution

TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA — Barring any last minute stay, north-central Iowa drug kingpin Dustin Honken will be executed later this afternoon.

The 52-year-old Honken of Britt was convicted of murder while engaged in drug trafficking, witness tampering, and soliciting the murder of a witness in connection with the 1993 murders of 34-year-old Greg Nicholson, 32-year-old Terry DeGeus, 31-year-old Lori Duncan and Duncan’s two children, 10-year-old Kandace and six-year-old Amber. Their five bodies were found buried in a field southwest of Mason City in the fall of 2000.

Honken was one of the Midwest’s early large-scale producers of methamphetamine and was originally sentenced in 1997 to a 27-year term for making and distributing drugs.

Honken’s girlfriend Angela Johnson was also convicted in connection with the murders and was sentenced to death, but her punishment was reduced to life in prison in 2014.

Earlier today, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals denied Honken’s latest motion for a stay of execution pending appeal. It’s possible that Honken’s attorneys will appeal to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and then finally to the United States Supreme Court.

Honken is scheduled to be put to death at the federal prison in Terre Haute Indiana at 3 o’clock this afternoon. He would become the first Iowa defendant to be put to death since 1963. Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965, but federal prosecutors successfully sought to execute Honken for killing government informants and children.

 

==The Associated Press reports over recent days, prison authorities permitted Honken to make his last calls to family and friends, according to Sister Betty Donoghue, a Catholic nun whom he called Wednesday.

On death row, Honken befriended Daniel Lewis Lee – the first man executed this week – and knew Lee’s execution was called off one hour, then was back on another hour, Donoghue said.

“He was very upset with the way Danny died,” said Donoghue, who visited Honken regularly over the past decade.

Yet Donoghue, of the Sisters of Providence just outside Terre Haute, said she was startled at how calm Honken sounded over the phone.

“He was at peace. I was totally amazed,” she said. “He believed he would go to heaven. He is ready to meet his maker.”

At his sentencing in 2005, Honken denied killing anybody. Donoghue said all she ever heard him say is that he was innocent.

Honken’s mother, brother and college-aged daughter visited him in prison in recent days, she said.

 

Story updated at 10:35 AM — The Associated Press contributed to this report