Judge to hear arguments on the death penalty for Ralph Menzies

Salt Lake City (Kutv) – A hearing was planned for the convicted murderer and the death wing Ralph Leroy Menzies to determine whether it is competent enough to face the death penalty.

Menzies has been in Utah's death cell for the kidnapping and murder of 26-year-old Maurine Hunsaker from 1986 for more than 35 years.

He chose the shooting level as his execution method before Utah removed the punishment.

More | Death series inmate Ralph Menzies:

His lawyers have argued that Menzies now has vascular dementia and no longer understands its crimes or punishment. You have argued that it would now be unconstitutional to bring him to death.

The hearing was originally planned for April 18, but was delayed after a ransomware attack on the public defender's office in Arizona was cut off the defenders of Menzies to case files.

Kutv spoke to Hunsaker's son Matt in January 2024. He was 10 years old when his mother was killed.

“It is a kind of emptiness in the whole family and it is difficult to see that it is the short 10 years that I had with her and how great and how much she made me the person I am,” he said.

Matt said his family had been waiting for four decades that his mother's murderer was coming to court.

His grandmother took part in every single hearing and sat down for her daughter Maurine until she finally died before she saw justice for her daughter.

“She was firmly convinced that she wanted him to be executed for what he was doing, and in her thoughts and in her soul what had to be done was what was right for her and her family,” he said.

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