Utah Department of Corrections preparing to carry out execution by firing squad

SALT LAKE CITY — Inside Utah’s death chamber at the Utah State Correctional Facility, work is underway to prepare for Ralph Menzies’ scheduled execution.

Menzies, 67, is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 5 by firing squad for the 1986 kidnapping and murder of 26-year-old Maurine Hunsaker. The mother of three was found deceased in Big Cottonwood Canyon two days after Menzies abducted her from a gas station in Kearns.

Menzies and his team of attorneys are still pursing several legal avenues to avoid the death penalty. Just this week, a judge heard arguments about whether Menzies’ mental state should be reevaluated. Menzies’ attorneys said his competency has declined significantly since he was previously found competent to be executed, despite a dementia diagnosis. The judge has not yet released a decision about the latest competency petition.

With the execution date 42 days away, the Department of Corrections is preparing the death chamber for a firing squad. The gurney used for lethal injections has been removed from the space. A black chair with straps used to secure the condemned sits inside the room where the department will hold several rehearsals leading up to the execution date.

“The clock really starts for us once the judge signs the death warrant,” said Glen Mills, with the Utah Department of Corrections. “However, I do want to point out that this is something we’ve been planning for months in advance. And as you know, we also had an execution last year. So we really have the blueprint as far as the operation and how it will work already in place and we feel good about what happened last year.” 

In August 2024, Taberon Honie, 48, was put to death for the brutal murder of Claudia Marie Benn, who was 49 when she was killed in 1998.

Honie died by lethal injection. Menzies’ execution, if carried out, will be Utah’s first execution by firing squad since 2010, and the first in the Utah State Correctional Facility.

“Right now, the biggest issue we are working on is recruiting the execution team,” said Mills.

The eight-member execution team will include a leader, two alternates and five shooters.

“Four of them will shoot live rounds and one will have a blank,” said Mills.

The shooters won’t know which firearm has the blank.

Firing squad members must be certified through Utah’s Peace Officer Standards and Training, prove their proficiency with firearms and pass mental strength tests. Unlike trying to find medical professionals to participate in a lethal injection, the department has a clear and vast recruiting pool in Utah law enforcement agencies across the state.

“We will definitely be able to fill that eight-person team,” said Mills.

He said no one will be forced to participate in carrying out a death sentence, but many corrections employees involved feel it’s their duty.

“When I sit around the table and and we talk about this very sensitive issue, not one person would necessarily choose to be doing that at that moment, but they see it as a heavy responsibility and something that they have been called upon to do,” said Mills. “I think it’s the most consequential responsibility any state agency undertakes and we do not take that lightly and it is our determination and our goal to make sure we do that with the utmost respect and professionalism.”

KSL will continue to follow and report on Menzies’ appeal efforts as well as the state’s execution process.

 

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