CEDAR RAPIDS – A death sentence imposed on a notorious North Iowa drug dealer was upheld Friday in Federal court.
U.S. District Chief Judge Linda Reade ruled that Honken received a fair trial and his lawyers were effective as they defended him for the 1993 murders of three adults and two children.
It was proven in court that the children were strangled by Honken and his then-girlfriend Angela Johnson. Angela Johnson is the first woman sentenced to death by a United States Federal jury since the 1950s.
On March 23, 2012, Federal Judge Mark W. Bennett vacated Johnson’s death sentence, citing a failure to introduce evidence about her mental state from an “alarmingly dysfunctional” defense team. Read the ruling here.
According to court documents, in July of 1993, Dustin Honken, with Johnson’s help, abducted and killed Greg Nicholson, Lori Duncan (Nicholson’s girlfriend), and Duncan’s two young daughters, Amber and Kandi.
