WEST JORDAN, Utah — The Utah Attorney General's Office intends to seek a death warrant to have condemned killer Ralph Leroy Menzies executed.
The filing in West Jordan's 3rd District Court on Monday follows a judge's ruling that Menzies is competent enough to face execution. His lawyers have argued he has dementia and therefore is incompetent to be put to death. Now that the judge has ruled, the state is asking to move forward to have Menzies executed.
"The State, therefore, moves to lift the stay on the execution proceedings and to schedule a hearing on the State’s application for an execution warrant on the soonest available date," Special Utah Solicitor General Thomas Brunker wrote in the motion.
As of Monday afternoon, Judge Matthew Bates had yet to schedule a hearing to sign a death warrant. His attorneys told FOX 13 News they will appeal to the Utah Supreme Court.
Menzies is on death row for the 1988 kidnapping and murder of Maurine Hunsaker. She was abducted from her job at a convenience store in Kearns, taken to Big Cottonwood Canyon where she was tied to a tree and murdered.
