A convicted multiple-killer from the northern Iowa town of Britt is one step closer to the execution chamber. A sentencing date for Dustin Honken has been set, meaning the north-central Iowa man will be the first person sentenced to death in Iowa in over 40 years. United States District Court Judge Mark Bennett signed the order yesterday setting the sentencing hearing for October 11th in Cedar Rapids. A federal jury last October found Honken guilty of the drug-related deaths of five north-central Iowans in 1993, with the jury two weeks later saying Honken should be put to death for the deaths of two children. Iowa as a state abolished the death penalty in 1965, but Honken and accomplice Angela Johnson were eligible for the death penalty under federal sentencing guidelines.
