Utah death row inmate with dementia dies of natural causes 3 months after execution was halted

A Utah man who had his execution blocked after growing dementia during his nearly years on death row died of apparent natural causes according to the state's Department of Corrections Ralph Leroy Menzies died Wednesday The state Supreme Court in August blocked his execution scheduled for Sept after his attorneys successfully argued that his dementia had become too severe A new competency hearing to reevaluate his mental state was set for next month He was sentenced to die by firing squad for his conviction in the abduction and killing of Maurine Hunsaker a -year-old mother of three near Salt Lake City in Menzies was sentenced to death in UTAH KILLER WITH DEMENTIA IS COMPETENT ENOUGH FOR DEATH SENTENCE TO BE CARRIED OUT JUDGE RULESThe victim's husband Jim Hunsaker commented he had a happy feeling and like a huge weight had been lifted off him when he learned of Menzies' death I think a lot of it is going to be just healing now he advised The Associated Press I don t think there was a day that I didn t think about it He expressed frustration about how the state's judicial system handled Menzies' event saying his family experienced one disappointment after another for decades It seems like everything went his way he commented Menzies is one of several U S prisoners who have died of natural causes while on death row More than half of all U S prisoners sentenced to death spend more than years awaiting execution according to the Death Penalty Information Center The state Supreme Court noted over the summer that the progression of Menzies' complaint raised a substantial concern about his fitness to be executed A state therapeutic professional agreed in a mental competency analysis published this month that Menzies lacked a rational understanding of why he was facing execution Those findings came after a state judge ruled he was competent enough to be executed saying in June that Menzies consistently and rationally understands what is happening and why he is facing execution despite his modern cognitive decline and that his execution would not violate the Eighth Amendment which prohibits cruel and strange punishments Utah Attorney General Derek Brown reported he hopes the victim's family will ultimately have specific closure and peace after Menzies' death 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 Brown noted Menzies abducted Hunsaker from a convenience store where she worked on Feb just days after he was distributed on bail for an unrelated crime She later called her husband to tell him she had been robbed and kidnapped but that her abductor planned to release her Days later a hiker identified her body at a picnic area about miles away in Big Cottonwood Canyon She was strangled and had her throat cut When he was later jailed on unrelated matters Menzies had Hunsaker s wallet and several other items that belonged to her Police also announced Hunsaker s thumbprint was detected in a car that Menzies was driving and her purse was discovered in his apartment SOUTH CAROLINA TRIPLE MURDERER SET TO BE THIRD MAN TO DIE BY FIRING SQUAD IN STATE THIS YEARMenzies was convicted of first-degree murder and other crimes We re grateful that Ralph passed naturally and maintained his spiritedness and dignity until the end Menzies' legal group disclosed in a declaration Menzies selected the firing squad as his method of execution and would have become only the seventh U S prisoner executed by firing squad since the U S reinstated the death penalty in three in Utah with the last one in the state carried out in and three in South Carolina this year Utah s last execution of any method was carried out by lethal injection over a year ago The Associated Press contributed to this review