A federal judge in Sioux City has denied a north-central Iowa drug kingpin’s requests to delay his execution.
Dustin Honken’s motions to delay his execution were rejected Tuesday by U-S District Judge Leonard Strand.
Strand wrote that he would not intervene due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the Federal Bureau of Prisons was in the best position to weigh the health risks against the benefits of carrying out the execution.
Strand also turned down Honken’s request to void his execution due to an alleged procedural error by the government.
The fifty-two-old Honken was sentenced to death for the 1993 murders of five people from the Mason City area.
Prosecutors say Honken killed them in an attempt to stop an investigation into his dealing methamphetamine.
His death by lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute Indiana is scheduled for Friday.
