The next appearance for Dustin Honken is likely to be in Indiana. A jury in federal court in Sioux City voted unanimously to sentence the convicted drug dealer to capital punishment in the deaths of two children — and the death sentence automatically triggers an appeal. U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett said he’d postpone formal sentencing till Honken’s lawyers file motions, which may include requests for a retrial or even a mistrial, based on the statements of one juror who told the court her boss made remarks about letting the defendant die. That juror was replaced and the penalty phase of the trial re-started with an alternate. Honken’s likely to spend the time waiting for for his case to be reviewed by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. That’s the penitentiary where federal death-row inmates are usually held, and it’s also the prison where federal executions are carried out.
