SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Jan. 18, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Prosecutors Wednesday filed papers seeking a hearing to request a death warrant for long-time death row resident Ralph Menzies.
The filings request a hearing before West Jordan 3rd District Judge Matthew Bates for the purpose of seeking the warrant for Menzies’ execution.
“Menzies has no pending action challenging either his capital murder conviction or death sentence,” the Utah Attorney General’s Office writes. “Therefore no legal reason exists to delay issuing an execution warrant.”
The application for the warrant was filed earlier in the day, with attending documents. No response or scheduling document has been filed, the last entry in Menzies’ court file Wednesday a 5:45 p.m.electronic confirmation to all parties of a proposed order for the judge to sign.
It reads simply: “Pursuant to Utah Code Section 77-19-6(1)(2023) the Court hereby orders the Sheriff of Salt Lake County, or his designee to deliver to the Executive Director of the Utah Department of Corrections, or his designee, the Warrant of Execution and a certified copy of the judgment of death in the above-entitled case.”
On Dec. 22, a judge cleared away the apparent last obstacle to Menzies death, dismissing a lawsuit from Menzies and four other death row denizens that claimed Utah’s capital punishment statute was cruel and unusual.
Menzies was convicted in 1988 and sentenced to death for the brutal murder of Maurine Hunsaker, a young mother of three who worked as a Kearns convenience store cashier.
On February 23, 1986, Menzies kidnapped Hunsaker from her job and took her to Big Cottonwood Canyon, according to the Ag’s office. He kept her overnight in a picnic area near Storm Mountain. Her body was found two days later, tied to a tree with her throat slashed.
Two prior death warrants, specifying a firing squad, have been issued for Menzies, on March 30, 1988 and Sept. 11, 2003, according to court files, both vacated during the appeals process.
Utah’s last execution came June 18, 2010, with Ronnie Lee Gardner executed by firing squad for the 1985 fatal shooting of an attorney during a courthouse escape attempt. He was in prison at the time for the 1984 killing of a bartender during a robbery.
