SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Supreme Court has once again rejected an appeal from the death row inmate Ralph Leroy Menzies.
In an order handed down on Tuesday, the state’s top court bluntly said: “None of Mr. Menzies’ claims have merit.”
Execution would not likely be any time soon. Menzies still has other appeals pending, including one in the federal courts, the Utah Attorney General’s Office said, so an execution warrant will not be sought.
Menzies was convicted of the 1986 kidnapping and murder of Maurine Hunsaker. She was abducted from her job at a gas station and held captive for about 12 hours before she was taken to Big Cottonwood Canyon, tied to a tree, strangled and her throat was slit.
Menzies has opted to die by firing squad.
He is among four inmates who are grandfathered in when lawmakers did away with the option in 2004. The last inmate to be executed in Utah, Ronnie Lee Gardner, died by firing squad in 2010.
Read the Utah Supreme Court’s ruling here:
