WEST JORDAN, Utah — Ralph Leroy Menzies will undergo a series of mental competency evaluations to help determine if he can be executed for the 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker.
On Friday, 3rd District Court Judge Matthew Bates set a series of deadlines for mental health evaluations that will be carried out by experts hired by Menzies' attorneys, as well as evaluations from Utah's Department of Health & Human Services. What they determine will help the judge decide whether to sign a death warrant for Menzies.
FOX 13 News reported last year that Menzies had exhausted his appeals and the Utah Attorney General's Office sought to have him executed. Menzies' lawyers claim that he has dementia and to execute him now would be unconstitutional.
Menzies is facing execution for the 1986 kidnapping and murder of Maurine Hunsaker. She had been abducted from her convenience store job and taken to Big Cottonwood Canyon where she was tied to a tree and her throat slit. She left behind a husband and three children.
On Friday, Hunsaker's son, Matt, told the judge he has been frustrated by the delays in executing Menzies.
"Here we are in 2024 and three days after the anniversary of his conviction. After sitting there for a half an hour we heard nothing of what we were really there for. We were there for my mom," Matt Hunsaker told FOX 13 News outside of court, adding he wants justice to be served.
At Hunsaker's request, Judge Bates did set a September competency trial for Menzies but he could not promise if that would stick.
If he is executed, Menzies has opted to die by firing squad. He is part of a lawsuit filed by several inmates that is challenging Utah's death penalty methods and protocols. A judge dismissed the lawsuit, but allowed the inmates to refile it.
The last execution carried out in Utah was the firing squad death of Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010.
