Corrections officials preparing for firing squad — Utah’s 2nd execution in 13 months

DRAPER — The Utah Department of Corrections is preparing for the state’s second execution in a little over a year.

An execution warrant was signed for Ralph Leroy Menzies last week. He is scheduled to be put to death — by firing squad — just after midnight on Sept. 5.

Taberon Davie Honie was put to death by lethal injection in August. It was the eighth execution in Utah since 1977, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty.

On Monday, corrections officials held a press conference to announce they are making preparations to fulfill their duty in connection with Menzies’s execution.

Utah Department of Corrections Executive Director Jared Garcia said the preparations and setup will be similar to last year’s execution and will be carried out in the same room, only the method of how the inmate will be put to death will be different. Corrections administrators say they anticipate increased media interest this time because a firing squad is being used.

Five people and two alternates will be selected to carry out the execution. Four of the five rifles will have bullets and one will have a blank. The group will not know which gun has the blank.

Garcia says his office will now begin the process of selecting the executioners.

“We will want to make sure that there are people who are, first of all, mentally prepared to participate in this type of assignment, as you can imagine, it shouldn’t be taken lightly. And also we want to make sure they are skilled in an area that requires it as well,” he said.

Garcia says he will “make sure (the execution) is done in a professional and dignified way and we do it right.”

The state’s last firing squad execution was on June 18, 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner, 49, was put to death.

Menzies, 67, was convicted of murdering Maurine Hunsaker, a 26-year-old mother of three who worked at a gas station in Kearns, in 1986. His attorneys say Menzies should not be executed because he is “permanently incompetent and categorically exempt from the death penalty” because of his dementia.

Garcia said his department will make sure Menzies is treated with respect and help him be as comfortable as possible in the weeks leading up to the execution date.