Death row inmate Ralph Menzies appears in 3rd District Court on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (Pool photo by Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune)
The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole has granted Ralph Menzies a commutation hearing ahead of the death row inmate’s Sept. 5 firing squad execution.
During the hearing, the board will decide whether to grant Menzies clemency, which would spare him from execution and instead impose a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
That’s never happened in Utah, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center.
During the hearing, both Menzies and the state will be able to call witnesses to testify for, and against, granting clemency. Neither party will be able to cross-examine witnesses.
The board has not yet set a date for the hearing.
Menzies’ attorneys have argued that the 67-year-old inmate is suffering from a severe form of vascular dementia that continues to advance, making him incompetent and therefore ineligible for execution. Both state and federal law require that death row inmates have an understanding of why they’re being executed — Menzies’ dementia is so bad he lacks that understanding, his attorneys say.
After a monthslong competency review, a judge found that Menzies does have dementia, but doesn’t meet the high bar to be deemed incompetent. Last week, the court heard arguments for and against granting Menzies another competency review, with the death row inmate’s attorneys claiming that in the time since his initial evaluation, which was done last year, his dementia has worsened.
Utah’s 3rd District Judge Matthew Bates is currently considering whether to grant him another review. If the judge rules in favor of Menzies, it could kick off a 60-day process where a medical professional examines the inmate and compiles a report for the court — depending on the report’s findings, Menzies could be found incompetent, and spared from execution.
Menzies was convicted of murder in 1988 after he kidnapped Maurine Hunsaker, a 26-year-old gas station clerk, and took her up Big Cottonwood Canyon where she was later found tied to a tree with her throat slashed.
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