SALT LAKE CITY — Death row inmate Ralph Leroy Menzies died Wednesday from natural causes in a hospital, ending a nearly 40-year effort by the state of Utah to try to execute him.
The 67-year-old Menzies was facing execution for the 1986 kidnapping and killing of Maurine Hunsaker. She was kidnapped from her job at a Kearns gas station, driven to Big Cottonwood Canyon where she was tied to a tree and her throat slit.
Menzies' original execution was halted earlier this year after his attorneys raised concerns about his mental state due to his dementia, and the Utah Supreme Court ruled that he was entitled to a new evaluation.
Menzies' legal team had argued that executing him with dementia would violate the U.S. Constitution right against cruel and unusual punishment.
"It’s a sense of relief if you will. It’s over. The chapter is closed," Hunsaker's son, Matt, told FOX 13 News on Wednesday. "We knew as a family this year — the 40th anniversary — there was going to be an end to all means. We just didn’t expect it this way. He got away with not being executed. But his life is over. And it’s a chapter we can close and move on now."
On Friday, a mental competency report prepared by a psychologist from Utah's Department of Health & Human Services found that Menzies was incompetent to be executed by firing squad.
Report finds Menzies incompetent to be executed:
"Ralph Menzies was deeply loved by his family, friends, legal team and by everyone who knew him well. In his later years, he devoted himself to helping others in every way he could. We’re grateful that Ralph passed naturally and maintained his spiritedness and dignity until the end," his attorneys said in an email to FOX 13 News.
In a statement, Utah Attorney General Derek Brown expressed support for the Hunsaker family.
"Maurine Hunsaker was a cherished wife and mother whose life was stolen in an act of horrific violence by Ralph Menzies. For decades, the State of Utah has pursued justice on her behalf. The path has been long and filled with pain, far more than any victim’s family should ever have to endure. Now as Ralph Menzies faces his final judgment, we hope this moment brings a measure of peace and closure to Maurine’s family."
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