- Matt Hunsaker expressed disappointment over the vacated death warrant for Ralph Menzies.
- Hunsaker, who said his own son may have to take up the legal fight for justice in Maureen Hunsaker's murder, now worries about indefinite appeal cycles.
- The Hunsaker family hopes for a competency reevaluation within 60 days, but is uncertain.
SALT LAKE CITY — Maurine Hunsaker's family is speaking out about the decision to put Ralph Menzies' execution on hold.
Maurine's son, Matt Hunsaker, and his son met with the attorney general's team on Tuesday. They went over the Utah Supreme Court's decision, which was dropped on Friday.
"Absolutely blindsided," Matt Hunsaker said, referring to the court's announcement. "Six days before the execution. I've never been that disappointed or taken aback in this case in my entire life."
The state's high court ruled that Menzies' competency needs to be reevaluated. It said his vascular dementia raises questions that he may not be competent enough to be executed.
His attorneys argue he's declined so much, he doesn't know why the state planned to end his life.
Hunsaker said he hopes Menzies' competency reevaluation gets done within the next 60 days.
He said he's not confident Menzies will ever be executed.
He said, in his meeting, they took issue with one specific part of the ruling. Here's how Matt Hunsaker described Part 5 of the court's decision.
"One of the things that was discussed today was Part 5 of their decision, which, unfortunately, the way that it's being read gives Menzies an indefinite amount of appeals to constantly stay it, and we discussed that it needs to be fixed, because if that's the case, then every time we go, it's going to just be an infinite circle of appeals," he said.
Hunsaker said the way they're interpreting the ruling, he worries the fight to execute Menzies would never end.
"If the Supreme Court doesn't fix this Part 5, anybody on death row, the four people on death row, all's they have to do is pull out the card and say, 'I'm incompetent, I've got a doctor that says, I got brain damage,' and if that's the case, then it's a stay," Hunsaker said. "It puts any other case into an infinite appeals cycle that will never end."
Matt Hunsaker said his son may take up the legal fight on behalf of Maurine Hunsaker.
"It's a process that the state doesn't even know," he said. "It's a road that we haven't traveled ever, and honestly, this probably is my last battle."
He said his family has been spending a lot of time together over the last few weeks, reminiscing about his mom and looking at pictures.
"Talking about her and teaching the younger kids, like, where she was born, where she was from, where she fell in being the youngest," he said. "We found some new pictures of her as being a younger person in her teens and having my daughter compare her looks at that age to hers. It's been uplifting."
