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Thread: Ralph Leroy Menzies - Utah Death Row

  1. #31
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    Death warrant hearing set in firing squad execution for convicted murderer Ralph Menzies

    By Michelle Poe
    KUTV

    A hearing is now set whether convicted murderer Ralph Menzies will be executed by firing squad this year.

    Judge Matthew Bates set the death warrant application hearing for Friday, Feb. 23 at 2pm. Menzies must appear in person before Judge Bates, where the judge will question Menzies himself.

    In his order, Judge Bates said the Department of Corrections must transport Menzies to the hearing and that, “The order shall authorize the Department to use any means of force reasonably necessary to compel Mr. Menzies to attend that hearing.”

    If the judge does not find reason to delay the sentence further, he will set an execution date and sign the warrant. The execution cannot be set any sooner than 30 days or no later than 60 days from the hearing date.

    Menzies kidnapped Maurine Hunsaker from a gas station in February 1986. He took her to an area near Storm Mountain in Big Cottonwood Canyon where she was tied to a tree, strangled and her throat slit. Menzies was convicted in 1988 and sentenced to death. When asked by the judge how he would prefer to die Menzies said, “shoot me.”

    Menzies has appealed his conviction over the last 36 years. He ran out of appeals late last year when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his case.

    An attorney for Maurine Hunsaker’s family filed a petition with the court objecting to any further delays in the case.

    The attorney, Heidi Nestel, argues against giving Menzies time to respond to the application for a death warrant. Menzies has asked for extra time to do so. In her filing Ms. Nestel says, “Enough is enough.” She quotes from Utah’s Victims’ Rights Amendment which says, “The victim of a crime has the right to a speedy disposition of the charges free from unwarranted delay.”

    She pointed out that the family has been waiting for over 35 years for the sentence to be carried out.

    Judge Bates however is giving Menzies a change to respond. He said any response must be filed by Feb. 7 and the state may file a reply to that by Feb. 16.

    https://kjzz.com/news/local/convicte...-supreme-court

  2. #32
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    Judge puts execution process on hold for Ralph Menzies for competency evaluation

    By Emily Ashcraft
    ksl.com

    The legal execution process for Ralph Menzies, a Utah inmate on death row, was officially put on hold on Tuesday after a judge granted his attorneys' request to consider whether the death-row inmate is competent.

    The court's order means 3rd District Judge Matthew Bates agrees an inquiry into Menzies' mental health should be completed.

    Menzies, who was found guilty of murdering a mother of three who worked at a gas station in Kearns, is now not able to understand why the state wants to execute him, his attorneys claim.

    Prosecutors did not agree he is not competent enough for execution, but did not object to an inquiry into his mental health.

    Menzies was previously scheduled for a hearing on Feb. 23 following the state's application for an execution warrant, but Tuesday's order canceled that hearing. At that hearing, an execution warrant could have been granted to set the date and method of Menzies' execution.

    Menzies, through his attorneys, opposed the request for an execution warrant, primarily citing his mental capability.

    Instead of a hearing on the execution warrant, the Department of Health and Human Services will appoint two examiners to evaluate Menzies, working with the Department of Corrections to video the evaluations. The court will set a competency hearing within 15 days of when it receives the reports from the examiners, Tuesday's order said.

    Lindsey Layer, an attorney for Menzies, said they are "relieved" the court agrees there is evidence requiring a competency hearing.

    "We are confident the evaluators will recognize that Ralph is not competent to be executed," she said.

    Menzies was found guilty of killing Maurine Hunsaker, a mother of three. She was working at a gas station in Kearns in 1986, and called to tell her husband to say she was abducted but believed she would be released. Two days later, her body was found in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

    Shortly after Menzies was sentenced, and after the first execution warrant was issued on March 30, 1988, the court put his death sentence on hold pending an appeal. The sentence was affirmed multiple times, including at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Most recently, in October the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his case.

    https://www.ksl.com/article/50876883...cy-evaluation-

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