IOWA CITY, Iowa — A federal judge denied an Iowa drug kingpin’s requests to delay his execution for killing five people, including two children, in 2003. Dustin Honken cited coronavirus risks in prison in seeking the delay. Judge Leonard Strand said he would defer to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to weigh the health risks against the benefits of the execution. Judge Strand’s decision cleared the way for Honken to be executed Friday. Honken killed Gregory Nicholson, Terry DeGeus, Lori Ann Duncan and her daughters. Nicholson and DeGeus were two of Honken’s former meth dealers. They had agreed to cooperate with an investigation into Honken’s multistate drug operation. The bodies were buried in a wooded area west of Mason City.
