'This man deserves no mercy': Victim's family asks for closure, execution of Ralph Menzies

SALT LAKE CITY — The family of Maurine Hunsaker say they've been through hell for nearly 40 years, and it's time for justice to finally be served.

"If you don't sentence him to death, it'll be on all your heads. … He has been so brutal, not only to Maurine, but to me, my family and anybody else that has to put up with him," Maurine's husband, Michael "Jim" Hunsaker, told members of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole on Friday.

"You are not punishing him one day that he is here. Punish him. Sentence him to the firing squad. It has to be done."

The commutation hearing for death row inmate Ralph Leroy Menzies resumed Friday with emotional testimony from Maurine Hunsaker's family as well as attorneys representing the family. A total of 10 victim representatives addressed the board. Each person talked about how Menzies' legal battles have carried on for way too long and how the family finally wants closure.

"We cannot protect, feed, house and even entertain evil for a lifetime and call that justice. It is not compassion. It is weakness," Kris Hunsaker, Maurine Hunsaker's son, told the board. Friday marked the first time Kris Hunsaker has spoken publicly about his mother, and he said it will be the only time.

"It is time for the family to have some closure that we've all been waiting for," added Nic Hunsaker, Maurine Hunsaker's youngest son.

Amber Sommer, Maurine Hunsaker's niece, told the board that she doesn't want Menzies executed out of vengeance, "but out of justice. ... My family needs closure from this."

Menzies, 67, is asking the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole to change his death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. His request for mercy from the board may be his last chance to stop his scheduled execution by firing squad just after midnight on Sept. 5. He was convicted of capital murder in the 1986 killing of Maurine Hunsaker, a 26-year-old mother of three, who Menzies robbed, kidnapped, tethered to a tree near Storm Mountain in Big Cottonwood Canyon and slit her throat. Next February will mark 40 years since Hunsaker was murdered.

'Tell them you're going to be shot'

All of Maurine Hunsaker's children, her husband, a niece and a brother addressed the board on Friday. Most of her children fought through tears as they recalled how they were too young to have any memories of their mother when she was brutally killed.

Her oldest son, Matt Hunsaker, however, was mostly angry as he talked for nearly an hour, often addressing Menzies directly.

"You killed my mom in cold blood," he told Menzies. "Twenty-one days, that's all you have left. Start making those phone calls, tell them you're going to be shot."

Matt Hunsaker, who is out of town and spoke to the board remotely, ended his comments by saying bluntly, "Ralph, I'll see your (expletive) in the execution chamber in 21 days," before turning off his livestream.

The oldest of Maurine Hunsaker's children warned the board that he was not going to be "soft and cuddly" when he began his comments.

"I get to be brutal, I get to say how it is, and I get to be angry," he said.

Matt Hunsaker said he is angry that Menzies' court battles have dragged on for nearly 40 years, that a commutation hearing is being held at all, and that the board scheduled the hearing during a time he told them he would be out of town.

"This man didn't show my mother nothing. He's been a career criminal. He's been a waste. He doesn't even have the decency to say what he did," he said.

"You don't have the decency to admit that you killed my mom," he continued. "You're a coward. You get to coward your way out of this. You get to die within seconds. I wish it could be the most painful and the most brutal death ever, but unfortunately, we're bound by that Constitution that we all hide behind. Well, you hide behind."

While Matt Hunsaker said several times that he has high respect for Menzies' defense team, he called the legal system "cruel" and "dysfunctional" and one that has not shown his mother or his family mercy for nearly four decades.

"This man deserves no mercy. He needs to be executed in 21 days. Ralph, 21 days. I pray … your dead body is in a bag," Hunsaker said. "I will be there and I will watch you get shot. I promise that."

Heidi Nestel, the Hunsaker family's victim advocate, also addressed the board, saying real mercy in this case will be given by allowing the family "to finally rest. To wake up on Sept. 6 knowing that her killer no longer has a legal voice longer than (Maurine's)."

Nestel says every time Menzies files another motion in court, "He is given attention and space that Maurine never had.

"Compassion must be paired with accountability to have any real meaning," she continued. "Please, we beg you, let your compassion rest with Maurine's children who grew up without their mother."

'There is so much more here that warrants mercy'

In his closing remarks, Menzies' defense attorney, Eric Zuckerman, did not deny that "the delay in this case has victimized the family; that is evidence of a flawed system."

But he says the board should grant mercy to Menzies; otherwise, a precedent will be set in Utah of executing someone based on perjured testimony.

"The death penalty only works if the integrity is beyond reproach. There must be no question about the integrity of an execution before it is carried out. If there is any doubt about that integrity, or whether that execution is fundamentally fair, it should not be carried out," Zuckerman argued.

In his closing arguments, Zuckerman criticized the state's presentation on Wednesday, saying the request for clemency is not based on Menzies' vascular dementia diagnosis alone.

"There is so much more here that warrants mercy," he said.

Zuckerman said for starters, his client doesn't have many more years to live, regardless of whether he is executed.

"Mr. Menzies is not faking this," he said. "He likely doesn't have much time."

But he urged the board to look at other information that the courts were not allowed to: namely, the testimony from another inmate who claimed in court that Menzies said killing Hunsaker was one of the greatest thrills of his life. That inmate has now twice recanted his testimony. But 3rd District Judge Raymond Uno, who is now deceased, relied heavily on that evidence when he sentenced Menzies to death, Zuckerman said.

He pointed to an affidavit that Uno signed in 2010 stating that he believes he gave Menzies the wrong sentence. Likewise, Zuckerman says former Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Christine Durham, who later worked with the Salt Lake County district attorney's Conviction Integrity Panel, also now believes that Menzies' death sentence lacks integrity.

The original fear that unless Menzies was put to death, he'd harm someone else is no longer valid, Zuckerman said.

"Citizens of Utah no longer need to be protected from Mr. Menzies. ... He is dying."

But in his closing arguments for the state, prosecutor Thomas Brunker said a promise was made to the people of Utah and Hunsaker's family nearly 40 years ago, and that "promise has remained unfulfilled." Menzies doesn't deserve mercy, he said, because he didn't show any to Maurine Hunsaker.

"He showed her none because it was against his self-interest and he's never shown any remorse for that," Brunker said, adding that the execution is what her family needs "to bring them closure. It's what they've been waiting for."

Brunker further argued that if Menzies' sentence is changed to life without parole, he would still present legal challenges in an attempt to have that sentence reduced. Zuckerman, however, countered that that is nonsense.

"This will end it. One way or another, this is going to be done either after the board's decision or after an execution," he said, while telling board members not to think "this is some sort of a trick" to get Menzies out of prison.

"You have the power to make sure Utah doesn't execute a disabled man with dementia," Zuckerman said in conclusion.

The full five-member board will now take all the information given during the hearing under advisement and, at some point before Sept. 5, vote whether to change Menzies' death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A final decision will be based on a majority vote.

Matt Hunsaker requested that the board not announce any decision before Tuesday, so he has a chance to travel back to Utah and be with his family when the decision is announced.

The last person executed in Utah was Taberon Honie. His request for commutation last year was denied four days after his hearing. The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole has never issued clemency to a death row inmate.

Related:

Ralph Menzies' cognitive decline debated during first day of commutation hearing

Doctors testified Wednesday about death row inmate Ralph Menzies' cognitive skills during a commutation hearing to determine whether his sentence should be changed to life without parole.

Related topics