A death row prisoner in Utah who was spared execution after developing dementia has died of apparent natural causes.
Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was to face a firing squad in September.
However, the Utah Supreme Court blocked the execution in August after his lawyers argued that his dementia had become too severe.
A judge had scheduled a new competency hearing for December to reevaluate his mental state.
Menzies had spent 37 years on death row after being convicted of abducting and killing mother-of-three Maurine Hunsaker in 1986.
He had kidnapped the 26-year-old from the convenience store near Salt Lake City where she worked. Her body was found two days later.
âMaurine Hunsaker was a cherished wife and mother whose life was stolen in an act of horrific violence by Ralph Menzies,” Utah Attorney General Derek Brown said Wednesday.
âFor decades, the state of Utah has pursued justice on her behalf. The path has been long and filled with pain, far more than any victimâs family should ever have to endure.â
Menzies would have been the seventh U.S. prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977.
He selected the method when given a choice decades ago.
The Utah Supreme Court said this summer that the progression of his disease raised a significant question on his fitness to be executed at the time.
Menzies abducted Hunsaker from the store on February 23, 1986, while he was on parole.
She later called her husband to say she was robbed and kidnapped, and that her abductor intended to release her.
Two days later, a hiker found her body at a picnic area about 16 miles (25 kilometers) away in Big Cottonwood Canyon. She had been strangled and her throat was slashed.
Police say Hunsakerâs thumbprint was found in a car that Menzies was driving, and her purse was recovered in Menziesâ apartment. Menzies also had her wallet and other belongings when he was jailed on unrelated matters.
âWeâre grateful that Ralph passed naturally and maintained his spiritedness and dignity until the end,â his legal team said in a statement.
Utahâs last execution played out by lethal injection just over a year ago. The state has not used a firing squad since the 2010 execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner.
