Posted on 11/29/2025 8:44:01 AM PST by TheDon
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."
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(Excerpt) Read more at fox13now.com ...
So….
He kidnapped, tortured and butchered an innocent woman, but he got to live out the rest of his natural life in jail with three square meals daily, a free bed to sleep in, free medical care, and not a care in the world.
What a great justice system we have…/s
He should’ve been taken out and shot through the head the minute they declared him guilty.
Let’s hope the DC “allahu akbar” shooter gets his well deserved “reward” much sooner.
A lot of scumbag lawyers need the same “rewards”. Protecting criminals isn’t much better than being a criminal.
It is an absolute Atrocity what our “legal system” has done, is doing, to America.
1986 was a long time ago. Ronald fricking Reagan was president! Jeeze Louise. I hope his attorneys die in a fire. Better than they deserve.
40 years ….. that’s insane. Did Utah run out of rope, or guts?
It's the fault of the 1950s era liberals who started demanding all Americans subscribe to Hollywood's perception of "social justice."
Such as the movie "12 Angry Men." Then the motto of American Jurisprudence became "better 100 guilty go free than 1 innocent man suffer."
But they ignored the fact that by letting those 100 go free, they would rape, rob and murder 1000s.
For once I support the lawyers in this case - based on people I know, living with advanced dementia is a fate worse than death so that's a win in this case.
should be amended to add 'unless one woman accuses that innocent man on her word alone, then he's screwed'.
Unless he's a democrat...
Oh right, that’s an important part of that policy.
7 Presidencies ago. The Gipper, Bush the elder, the toon, W, Zero, Trump 1, Brandon, Trump 2. 1986 to 2025.
We have got to do away with the endless appeals. It is beyond ridiculous.
PEOPLE WITH ADVANCED DEMENTIA ARE IN A WORLD OF THEIR OWN-—
Except there's you and me and today's AI.
They can put you anywhere. On film. With audio. With child porn on your PC. If they're (Deep State) is tired of you, all you could say is "I'm innocent!".
I'll give anybody these days 5 years in jail to question their conviction but to outlive your victim(s), the prosecutors, the witnesses, his lawyers and then die of old age after all those years with three hots and a cot with TV?
Pretty sure something is wrong here.
Five years of judicial review? Indisputable evidence? Wood Chipper. Slowly, feet first. IMHO.
I would rather have to agree on this. No reason for a known killer to hold out that long before being executed. What was the holdup? Yes, our justice system is really something; for the guilty at least.
“Utah Supreme Court ruled that he was entitled to a new evaluation.”
Judges....again.
“We have got to do away with the endless appeals. It is beyond ridiculous.”
Agreed.
He’s in Jesus’ arms now. Might be one painful suffocating headlock, don’t know.
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