SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Board of Pardons & Parole has rejected condemned killer Ralph Leroy Menzies' request to commute his death sentence.

Menzies is facing a Sept. 5 firing squad execution for Maurine Hunsaker's death. She was taken from her job at a Kearns gas station, tied to a tree, and her throat was slit.

Lawyers for Menzies, who faces execution for the 1986 kidnapping and killing of Hunsaker, have argued that he has dementia and that executing him now would violate the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. A lower court judge ruled Menzies is competent enough to be executed.

Menzies has one more chance to avoid execution, with a hearing scheduled Thursday before the Utah Supreme Court.

"The Board heard and carefully considered the testimony of witnesses called by both Mr

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