Utah Supreme Court rules to vacate Menzies warrant of execution
Aug 29, 2025, 3:01 PM | Updated: 4:17 pm
Death row inmate Ralph Menzies appears during his commutation hearing Aug. 15. (Bethany Baker)
(Bethany Baker)
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court said that it will grant Ralph Leroy Menzies a competency hearing and vacated his warrant for execution on Friday afternoon.
In a unanimous decision, the state’s high court ruled that District Judge Matthew Bates erred by not allowing Menzies a new competency hearing.
“We reverse the district court’s order denying Menzies’s petition for reevaluation, vacate the warrant of execution and remand to the district court for further proceedings,” according to the court’s opinion on Friday.
In 1988, Menzies was convicted of Maurine Hunsaker’s murder and sentenced to death. For over 35 years, Menzies has been appealing the ruling and his sentencing.
According to court documents, in 2024, Menzies exhausted his appeals, and the State sought an execution warrant. During that time, he was diagnosed with vascular dementia, a disease that deteriorates a person’s daily mental and physical functions.
Menzies responded to the execution warrant with a petition that his vascular dementia “rendered him incompetent to be executed under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” according to the court’s opinion.
The United States Supreme Court has held that a person is not competent to be executed if the person cannot “reach a rational understanding of the reason for his execution.” The Court has explained that this is so when a person’s “mental state is so distorted by a mental illness” or his “concept of reality is so impaired” that he “cannot grasp . . . the link between his crime and its punishment. – Utah Supreme Court opinion
Ultimately, the Utah Supreme Court agreed with Menzies’ argument, referencing the disease’s “progressive effects call into question whether he remains competent to be executed.”
We acknowledge that this uncertainty has caused the family of Maurine Hunsaker immense suffering, and it is not our desire to prolong that suffering. But we are bound by the rule of law, and the law dictates that if Menzies makes a prima facie showing a substantial change of circumstances that raises a significant question about his competency to be executed, a district court must reevaluate his competency, even though it may cause additional delay – Utah Supreme Court opinion
Menzies was slated to be executed by firing squad on Sept. 5.
Related: Utah Department of Corrections preparing to carry out execution by firing squad
This is a developing news story and may be updated with more information.
