It has been over 17 years since the last federal execution in the United States. This all changes this week, with three federal executions; one of whom is of Iowa native Dustin Lee Honken.
On today's episode of River to River, host Ben Kieffer discusses the upcoming execution of Iowa native and mass murderer Dustin Lee Honken.
In 1993, Honken was running a large-scale meth production operation. In an effort to protect his business, Honken executed the murders of five people — two of whom were children. It was 11 years before Honken was convicted of their murders by a jury and 12 years before Honken received a federal death sentence. However, the U.S. federal government stopped federal executions in 2003, just recently re-instating them in July 2019. Read more about the case in Courtney Crowder's piece in the Des Moines Register.
Guests:
- Courtney Crowder, columnist, The Des Moines Register
- Andrea Lyon, criminal defense lawyer
- Thomas Zinkula, Bishop, Dioceses of Davenport