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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court has rejected the latest appeal from death row inmate Ralph Leroy Menzies.
"None of Mr. Menzies' claims have merit. We reject each of his constitutional challenges," the state's high court wrote in its ruling released Tuesday.
Menzies made numerous claims in his latest appeal to the Supreme Court, including that the appeals courts erred in rejecting several of his motions, as well as claims that his former counsel provided ineffective assistance, including at trial, sentencing, and on appeal.
"We reject each of Mr. Menzies' claims and affirm the (post conviction court's) order dismissing his Fifth Amended Petition," the court wrote.
This is the second post-conviction appeal the Utah Supreme Court has considered from Menzies in addition to hearing two direct appeals during his trials.
Menzies has been on Utah's death row for 26 years.
On Feb. 23, 1986, Menzies kidnapped Maurine Hunsaker from a convenience store in Kearns, took her to Storm Mountain in Big Cottonwood Canyon, tied her to a tree, strangled her and slit her throat. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder in 1988.
None of Mr. Menzies' claims have merit. We reject each of his constitutional challenges.
–Utah Supreme Court ruling
The Utah Supreme Court upheld Menzies' conviction and sentence in 1994. But in 2007, it ruled he had ineffective counsel for his first post-conviction appeal filed in 1995 and said he could start that appeal over again.
With this latest decision by the state's high court, Tom Brunker, the Utah attorney general's capital appeals division chief, said this round of appeals can finally be put to rest.
"I'm glad that this stage has come to a close finally. This stage has been in litigation since 1995," he said. "I'm just happy this stage has finally come to an end and this case can finally move forward."
The appeals process will now move into federal court. Menzies filed a federal habeas corpus petition in 2007, making the same kinds of claims of ineffective assistance, Brunker said. But that case has been stayed pending the outcome of the Utah Supreme Court's decision. Brunker anticipates the stay will now be lifted and that appeal will move forward.
When asked how much longer Menzies case could stay in the court system before he exhausts all of his appeals, Brunker noted that the last two death row cases that went to federal court — Ronnie Lee Gardner and Douglas Carter — each took 10 years.
"It's hard to predict from the past what will happen in present and future cases. But it's not going to be tomorrow. Let me put it this way, we will not be applying for an execution warrant based on this decision," Brunker said, while also recognizing it's been 28 years since Hunsaker was murdered.
"It is a long time, and it is too long. And we're doing what we can to try and speed it up. Not just in this case but in all of them," he said.
