After Dustin Lee Honken graduated from high school in Arizona, he attended a community college, where he was noticed for his chemistry skills. He began manufacturing methamphetamines and sold them to two drug dealers from Mason City, Iowa, Greg Nicholson and Terry DeGeus.
In 1993, law enforcement began to investigate Nicholson. In exchange for immunity, he agreed to testify against Honken, who was charged with manufacturing and trafficking illicit drugs. Honken was released on bond until his hearing. Later that summer, Greg Nicholson, his girlfriend Lori Duncan, and Duncan’s two young daughters were all reported missing.
On July 30, 1993, Honken arrived for his plea hearing and decided to not plead guilty. He told his lawyer that he had heard Greg “skipped town,” and also provided his lawyer with a VHS tape of Greg saying Honken was not guilty of the charges against him. A few months later, the other drug dealer, Terry DeGeus, came up missing. With both witnesses unable to be located, the case against Honken was eventually dismissed.
Dustin Lee Honken was arrested again on drug charges in 1996 and he was sentenced to 27 years in prison. This conviction compelled a number of people associated with the earlier case to come forward with a confession that Honken had, in fact, murdered the five individuals who were still missing. Through the use of a wiretap, law enforcement got Honken on tape confessing to the murders and they used the maps to discover all five bodies buried in large hole in a wooded area outside Mason City. The two girls had each been shot once in the back of the head, while Greg and Lori had been bound, gagged, and shot multiple times. Terry had been shot at least once, and his skull was severely fragmented.
In August 2001, Honken was charged with several counts of murder. His trial began one year later. Due to his previous threats and escape attempts, Honken was designated a serious security risk, and was forced to wear a stun belt and be shackled and bolted to the floor during the trial. Special precautions were taken to ensure that the jury remain unbiased, such as not moving Honken in their presence and keeping his shackles hidden from view.
On October 27, 2004, Honken was found guilty for all five murders. He was given life sentences for the murder of Greg, Lori, and Terry. He was sentenced to death for the murders of the two girls, Kandi, age 10, and Amber, age 6.
Dustin Lee Honken has spent the past 16 years on death row. He was scheduled to be executed at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana on January 15, 2020, just a few weeks ago.
But the execution has been halted by a U.S. District Court Judge, who has issued a stay on all federal executions scheduled throughout January 2020 on the grounds that that the federal execution protocol is unconstitutional.
Here we have the story of a violent drug dealer who was convicted of brutally murdering five human beings, including two innocent little girls. Do you think he deserves to be executed or not? What would be a just and proper punishment for such a heinous crime? If you sat on a jury for a case like this, what would you decide?
Capital punishment is a morally and politically controversial topic in American society. People on the liberal end of the spectrum tend to believe that the death penalty should be abolished. It is inhumane and is a “cruel and unusual” punishment—imprisonment is the appropriate punishment for murder because every execution risks killing an innocent person. People on the conservative side tend to believe that the death penalty is a punishment that fits the crime of murder; it is neither cruel nor unusual—executing a murderer is the appropriate punishment for taking an innocent life.
Even Christians disagree on capital punishment. Christian proponents of capital punishment often point to the Old Testament laws like Exodus 21:1-14 which states, “Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death. However, if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will designate. But if a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, take him away from my altar and put him to death.”
Christian opponents of capital punishment often argue that individuals who evidence repentance, conversion, and a change of life should have their death sentences reduced to life in prison. Their reasoning parallels the logic of Ezekiel 33, where God says: “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. … If someone who is wicked repents, that person’s former wickedness will not bring condemnation.”
Opponents of capital punishment also point to systemic problems in the judicial system, which include eyewitness error, coerced confessions, prosecution misconduct, racial disparities, incompetent counsel, inadequate instruction to juries, judges who override juries that do not vote for the death penalty, and improper sentencing of those who lack the mental capacity to understand their crime. In the first decade of the 21st century, 258 wrongfully convicted people have been exonerated due to the introduction of DNA evidence. Twenty of those were serving time on death row.
Some of you may have seen the controversial execution in Alabama earlier this week. Nathanial Woods was convicted for the murders of three Birmingham police officers in 2004, but there were questions about his culpability, his representation at trial, and his co-defendant, Kerry Spencer said Woods was innocent. Hours before Woods’ death, the US Supreme Court temporarily halted the execution but later denied the stay. Woods did not make a final statement and was pronounced dead at 9:01p.m.
As you can see, capital punishment is an extremely complex issue for Christians and non-Christians alike. What is your personal position on capital punishment?
Capital Punishment and the Preservation of Life
Today’s Bible reading deals with the topic of capital punishment and the preservation of human life. It picks up the story of Noah’s ark after the great flood waters receded and God began to recreate earth, including the human race. Once Noah and his family came out of the ark and worshipped God with a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and God makes three pronouncements about the preservation of human race. If human life would be reestablished and sustained on the earth, it would need three things: propagation, protection, and provision.
The Propagation of the Human Life (1, 7)
In verses 1 and 7, God repeats the command that he gave to Adam back in Genesis 1:28. As with the initial creation, God blessed Noah and his family with the reproductive ability to propagate the human race. In fact, God called them to join him the art of cocreating human beings in his image. This is why he created the humans with two genders, male and female—to enter a one-flesh relationship through marriage and multiply the race across the face of the earth. Like Adam and Eve, God blessed Mr. and Mrs. Noah with the anatomical equipment they necessary to fulfill his recreation command. If human life would be preserved in the future, it must first be propagated.
These verses remind us of God’s wonderful blessings of sex and sexuality. God blessed each one of us with the sex he wanted us to have, either male or female! He blessed us with the institution of marriage where we can form a covenant with God and our beloved and enjoy all of the physiological, emotional, and spiritual components of sexual intimacy. God has blessed us with the anatomical capacity to be cocreate human life. God could have reserved this ability for himself, but he has called us to participate in the process and enjoy all of its benefits!
This may sound strange, but have you ever stopped to thank God for the blessings of sex and sexuality? Have you ever thanked God for the capacity to cocreate human life, and thus, play a part in preserving the human race? After all, a baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on!
The Protection of Human Life (2a, 5-6)
After God speaks about the importance of propagation in preserving the human race, he offers two pronouncements to protect the human race. The first one is found in verse 2, when he instills the fear of humans in the beasts of the earth and birds of the air. He literally says to Noah, “The fear of you and the dread of you shall fall upon…” God placed the fear of humans in animals to protect humans.
The media loves to broadcast stories about human fatalities due to animal attacks. These stories cause us to believe that humans are killed by wild animals all the time, but this is actually quite rare. Humans are far more likely to kill animals than animals kill humans.
For instance, I’ve met people who refuse to swim in the ocean because they’ve seen the movie “Jaws” one too many times. That movie has had an undue effect on human behavior. But perhaps you have heard the adage: “More people die annually from falling coconuts than they do shark attacks!” It’s been reported that falling coconuts kill about 150 people a year to 5 people killed by sharks. This report, of course, is absolutely false about the coconuts, but it’s true about shark attacks!
Despite media sensationalism, human fatalities due to animal attacks are extremely rare. Praise God for protecting human life by causing the animals to be more afraid of us than we are of them!
The second pronouncement about protecting human life is found in verses 4-6, where God establishes the law of capital punishment. In verse 5-6, God says, “And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning; from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. ‘Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.’” This law warns people to safeguard human life; the law was necessary for maintaining the stability of life in the new creation— wickedness would not go unchecked as it did before the flood. God has the authority to take human life because he is the Creator of life. He delegates his authority to the state to carry out capital punishment as a just punishment for people and animals who commit murder. The crime of murder is first and foremost against God because human beings are created in God’s image.
So, what is the Bible’s verdict for Dustin Lee Honken and Nathaniel Woods? Should they be executed to satisfy God’s law in Genesis 9:5-6? The answer to this question is: No! Why? Even though God instituted capital punishment for murder, he goes on in Deuteronomy 19 to establish an extremely high burden of proof in capital cases. There must be two or three eye-witnesses to execute a person for murder. Moreover, if a witness commits perjury, then the judges hearing the case will do to the perjurer as he or she intended to do to the accused, including life for life.
Neither of the previously mentioned cases met the biblical criteria to carry our capital punishment. Although no one doubts that Dustin Lee Honken is guilty of heinously murdering five human beings, including two little girls, he should not be executed on the basis that there were no eye-witnesses! God really does want to protect human life!
The Provision for Human Life (2-3, 8-17)
After God makes pronouncements about the propagation and protection of human life in the new creation, he makes provisions to sustain human life. In verses 3-4, God provides meat to the human diet. Before the great flood, it appears that human beings were all vegetarians, but now God allows animals to be killed for human consumption.
Let me make simple but profound theological statement based on these two verses. If you choose to be a vegetarian, bless your heart! But if you happen to be a ravenous carnivore like me, praise God for his wonderful provision of Filet Mingon, chicken parmesan, sausage, ham, bacon, venison, and all of the Italian meats: Pepperoni, pastrami, salami, sopressata, mortadella, and capicola! These gifts from God not only sustain human life, but they also bring incredible joy!
And finally, in verses 8-17, God provides for the human race by forming a covenant (a binding verbal contract) with the human race that he will never again flood the whole earth. He placed the rainbow in the sky as a sign of this promise.
God made this covenant with Noah to preserve the human race in the new creation. Every time we look up and see a multi-colored bow stretch across the sky, we should remember God’s mercy in recreating the earth and giving us everything we need to sustain human life, including his promise to never flood the whole earth again.
Since God is the Creator of human life, he wants to preserve human life. He has given us the ability to propagate human life! He has established capital punishment to protect human life! And he has given us a carnivorous diet and a divine covenant to provide for human life! May praise God and give him thanks for all of his gifts to us!