Ralph Menzies
American convicted murderer on death row in Utah
Ralph Leroy Menzies (April 21, 1958 – November 26, 2025) was an American convicted murderer who was on death row in Utah for the 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker (February 28, 1959 – February 25, 1986), a gas station attendant whom he kidnapped before slitting her throat. Menzies was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death on March 23, 1988. His scheduled September 5, 2025, execution was put on hold for a competency re-evaluation. Before the competency evaluation could be completed, Menzies died of natural causes.
When Douglas Stewart Carter's death sentence was overturned in May 2025, Menzies became Utah's longest-serving death row inmate, having been sentenced to death in 1988.
Early life and criminal history
Ralph Leroy Menzies was born in Utah, United States, on April 21, 1958. He came from a dysfunctional family. Menzies was reportedly subjected to relentless child abuse by his stepfathers: they assaulted him, refused to give him food, forced him to sleep in a small room with his sister for three years, and prevented him from going to school. As a result of the abuse, the early death of his biological mother, and his sister's need to take care of their younger brother, who was in poor health, Menzies grew up without a proper caretaker or parental figure. Menzies's school records showed that he had a poor track record of attendance.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ralph Menzies” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.