Utah decide guidelines a convicted killer with dementia is competent to be executed
SALT LAKE CITY — A convicted killer in Utah who developed dementia whereas on dying row for 37 years is competent sufficient to be executed, a state decide dominated late Friday.
Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was sentenced to die in 1988 for killing Utah mom of three Maurine Hunsaker. Regardless of his latest cognitive decline, Menzies “constantly and rationally understands” what is going on and why he’s dealing with execution, Choose Matthew Bates wrote in a courtroom order.
“Menzies has not proven by a preponderance of the proof that his understanding of his particular crime and punishment has fluctuated or declined in a manner that offends the Eighth Modification,” which prohibits merciless and strange punishments, Bates stated.
Menzies had beforehand chosen a firing squad as his methodology of execution. He would turn into solely the sixth U.S. prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977.
The Utah Lawyer Basic’s Workplace is predicted to file a dying warrant quickly.
Menzies’ attorneys, who had argued his dementia was so extreme that he couldn’t perceive why he was being put to dying, stated they plan to attraction the ruling to the state Supreme Courtroom.
“Ralph Menzies is a severely brain-damaged, wheelchair-bound, 67-year-old man with dementia and important reminiscence issues,” his legal professional, Lindsey Layer, stated in a press release. “It’s deeply troubling that Utah plans to take away Mr. Menzies from his wheelchair and oxygen tank to strap him into an execution chair and shoot him to dying.”
The U.S. Supreme Courtroom has spared others prisoners with dementia from execution, together with an Alabama man in 2019 who had killed a police officer.
Over almost 4 a long time, attorneys for Menzies filed a number of appeals that delayed his dying sentence, which had been scheduled at the least twice earlier than it was pushed again.
Hunsaker, a 26-year-old married mom of three, was kidnapped by Menzies from the comfort retailer the place she labored. She was later discovered strangled and her throat minimize at a picnic space within the Wasatch Mountains of northern Utah. Menzies had Hunsaker’s pockets and a number of other different belongings when he was jailed on unrelated issues. He was convicted of first-degree homicide and different crimes.
Matt Hunsaker, who was 10 years previous when his mom was killed, stated Friday that the household was overwhelmed with emotion to know that justice would lastly be served.