Utah judge upholds death penalty after five death-row inmates sued to overturn it

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — An attempt by five plaintiffs to overturn Utah’s death penalty as “cruel and unusual punishment” failed as the state’s 3rd District dismissed their lawsuit earlier today, Dec. 22.

The original lawsuit was filed in March of this year on behalf of five convicted murderers sentenced to die by Utah courts for their crimes: Ralph Menzies, Taberon Honie, Troy Kell, Douglas Carter and Michael Archuleta. All five were sentenced prior to 2004.

The five plaintiffs sued the Utah Department of Corrections, the Utah State Correctional Facility, Gov. Spencer Cox, Warden Robert Powell, Asst. Deputy Executive Director Spencer Turley, Training Academy Director Travis Knorr, and 10 unnamed people in their official capacities with the state.

Third Dist. Judge Coral Sanchez dismissed their suit today in a 29-page document explaining why their arguments do not hold under Utah’s Constitution.

‘Cruel and unusual punishment’

One of the main arguments the plaintiffs made in their lawsuit wasn’t that the death penalty itself is unconstitutional, but rather that the methods used by Utah — lethal injection and firing squad — could cause unnecessary suffering.

Utah is one of only four U.S. states that still allow executions by firing squads, including Mississippi, South Carolina, and Oklahoma. As of 2015, Utah made lethal injection the state’s primary method of execution but kept the firing squad as a backup method if the drugs needed for lethal injection are unavailable.

With at least two of the plaintiffs slated to die by firing squad, their original lawsuit delved deep into the possibilities of botched executions by firing squads, which could cause those being executed to suffer for extended periods before their deaths. The lawsuit argues that the five men should be entitled to instantaneous death without risk of severe pain.

In 2010, the Utah Department of Corrections updated its protocols requiring the state to “eliminate the risk of severe pain” in executing criminals. Judge Sanchez stated today that the five plaintiffs had four years from the 2010 changes to fight against the new protocols. Instead, Sanchez noted the plaintiff waited until 2023 to challenge the protocols, meaning the statute of limitations kicked in and made their lawsuit “untimely.”

Sanchez also examined Utah’s death penalty laws going back to 1895, noting that the people of Utah have not significantly edited or rewritten the main laws since that time. Ultimately, Sanchez ruled that the laws as they are currently written do not require the courts to decide a ‘better’ method of execution. In short, as the laws are written now, the burden of proof is on the plaintiffs, and Sanchez ruled they had not met that burden.

“Plaintiffs have offered no legal precedent or historical facts to support their interpretation of the cruel and unusual punishments clause: that a method of execution must result in instantaneous death,” stated Sanchez’s ruling. “Plaintiffs have not alleged any facts to show the protocols implemented to execute people during the ratification era of the Utah Constitution were more likely to eliminate pain than the protocols he now challenges, which were written in 2010.”

Also, Sanchez said the plaintiffs have not “identified a feasible, readily implemented alternative to the 2010 protocols that would significantly reduce a substantial risk of that pain.” Sanchez noted that it’s not the court’s “burden” to come up with a different method of execution.

The plaintiffs also attempted to argue that intravenous drugs given in lethal injections often do not sufficiently numb a person before killing them. Sanchez stated that the lawsuit did not show “that the 2010 protocols will subject an inmate to a sufficiently imminent danger of needless suffering as required by the United States Supreme Court. They have not shown an ‘objectively intolerable risk of harm’ based upon the way the protocols are written.'”

Sanchez’s entire ruling can be read at the end of this post.

The plaintiffs’ crimes

The five plaintiffs who asked the court to block the death penalty in their cases are as follows, according to their original March 2023 lawsuit and from information from the Utah Attorney General’s Office:

• Ralph Menzies — Sentenced to death in March 1988 in the murder of Maurine Hunsaker, a young mother of three who worked as a Kearns convenience store cashier. According to the AG’s Office, on February 23, 1986, Menzies kidnapped Hunsaker from her job and took her to Big Cottonwood Canyon. He kept her overnight in a picnic area near Storm Mountain. Her body was found two days later, tied to a tree with her throat slashed. He is facing death by firing squad. Today’s dismissal was Menzies’ final action for appeal in Utah. He can now only be spared by a pardon or by the action of the U.S. Supreme Court. A death warrant for Menzies is expected to be issued within weeks, according to the AG’s Office.

• Douglas Carter — Sentenced to death in January 1992 for the aggravated murder of Eva Olesen, 57, the aunt of a former Provo police chief who was found stabbed and shot in the head in 1985. After decades of appeals, the Utah Supreme Court in 2019 reversed Carter’s conviction and ordered a new trial after the witnesses — Epifanio Tovar and Lucia Tovar — said police and prosecutors offered them gifts and money, coached them to lie in court and threatened them with deportation if they didn’t cooperate. The Tovars were immigrants without legal status. Until Carter can receive a new trial, he remains subject to his original sentence. Carter originally faced death by lethal injection.

• Taberon Honie — Sentenced to death in May 1999 in the death and sexual assault of his ex-girlfriend’s mother, Claudia Benn, 49. Honie used a rock to smash through a glass patio door before he cut Benn’s throat four times and slashed her with a kitchen knife. She also faced bites and sexual assault. Police arrested Honie covered in blood. Three children were in the home at the time of the killing. 5th District Judge Robert Braithwaite was quoted as saying, “It was not a sentence I gave to the defendant; he earned it. If this isn’t a death penalty case, I don’t know what is.” It is unclear which method of execution is slated for Honie.

• Troy Kell — Originally sentenced to life in prison by a Nevada court for the 1986 murder of James “Cotton” Kelly, also known as James Thiede. Kell was sent to Utah as part of a prisoner exchange program, but later killed Utah Department of Corrections inmate Lonnie Blackmon in 1994, along with accomplice Eric Daniels. Kell was set to be executed in 2003, but decided to appeal his case. He faces death by firing squad.

• Michael Archuleta — Sentenced to death in March 1993 in the murder of Gordon Ray Church in 1988. Archuleta and accomplice Lance Conway Wood were tried separately. Archuleta was on parole at the time, as was Wood. The two attacked Church, bound him, placed him in a trunk, drove 76 miles north of Cedar City, removed Church from the trunk, attached live battery cables to his privates and beat him severely. They then inserted a tire iron into his rectum, forcing it into his body until Church’s liver was punctured. Wood received a life sentence in his trial. Archuleta faces death by lethal injection.

What’s next?

The five plaintiffs have 21 days to file an amendment to their original complaint. If they do not, Sanchez’s order stands and their lawsuit is dismissed without prejudice. Dismissal without prejudice means that suit can be amended and brought before the court again.

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