SALT LAKE CITY (KTVX) – A Utah judge on Wednesday set an execution date for a man whose lawyers say he suffers from worsening dementia.
Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, has been on death row since 1988 after his conviction for abducting and killing Utah mother of three Maurine Hunsaker in 1986. When given a choice decades ago, Menzies selected a firing squad as his method of execution. If he’s executed on Sept. 5, he would become only the sixth U.S. prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977.
Throughout the hearing, Judge Matthew Bates, who is presiding over the case, heard arguments about whether or not to issue an execution warrant for Menzies. The legal team for Menzies argued against signing the warrant, continuing their argument that he was falsely deemed competent for execution.
“He is dependent on oxygen, unable to walk without assistance, and exhibits the unmistakable signs of dementia familiar to anyone who has cared for a loved one with this devastating disease,” Lindsey Layer, an attorney for Ralph Menzies, said after Judge Bates’ ruling. “We remain hopeful that the courts or the clemency board will recognize the profound inhumanity of executing a man who is experiencing steep cognitive decline and significant memory loss.”
Layer added, “Taking the life of someone with a terminal illness who is no longer a threat to anyone and whose mind and identity have been overtaken by dementia serves neither justice nor human decency.”
Who is Ralph Menzies?
In 1988, a Utah jury found Ralph Menzies guilty of the aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping of Maurine Hunsaker, a gas station attendant from Kearns. Days after Hunsaker’s disappearance, she was found dead near a Big Cottonwood Canyon picnic area.
Hunsaker had reportedly been strangled to death, and her throat was cut. Detectives also noticed marks on wrists and scuffing on a nearby tree, indicating that she had been tied to the tree for a time.
Menzies was connected to the murder after he was booked into jail on an unrelated burglary charge. Officers reportedly found identification cards belonging to Hunsaker in a changing room hamper while officers were taking his possessions.
Following his trial, Menzies was placed on death row.
Question of competency
Now 67 years old, Menzies’ competency for execution has been called into question by his legal team. Defense attorneys say Menzies has developed dementia, arguing that he no longer understands why he is on death row.
On June 6, 2025, Menzies was ruled competent for execution; Judge Bates had ruled that Menzies “consistently and rationally” understands why he is facing execution despite recent cognitive decline.
Attorneys for Menzies have petitioned the court for a reassessment, but Bates said Wednesday that the pending appeal was not a basis to stop him from setting a date.
Bates did, however, schedule a July 23 hearing to evaluate the new competency petition.
‘Still don’t have justice served’
The U.S. Supreme Court has at times spared prisoners with dementia from execution, including an Alabama man in 2019 who had killed a police officer. If a defendant cannot understand why they are being put to death, the high court said, then an execution is not carrying out the retribution that society is seeking.
For Hunsaker’s son, Matt, who was 10 years old when his mother was killed, it has been “hard to swallow that it’s taken this long” to get justice.
“You issue the warrant today, you start a process for our family,” he told the judge Wednesday. “It puts everybody on the clock. We’ve now introduced another generation of my mom, and we still don’t have justice served.”
Menzies and other Utah death row inmates sentenced before May 2004 were given a choice between firing squad and lethal injection. For inmates sentenced in the state after that date, lethal injection is the default method unless the drugs are unavailable.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
