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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Utah judge rules a convicted killer with dementia is competent to be | |
executed | |
By Associated Press | |
Updated: | |
12:20 AM EDT, Sat June 7, 2025 | |
Source: AP | |
A convicted killer in Utah who for 37 years is competent enough to be | |
executed, a state judge ruled late Friday. | |
Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was sentenced to die in 1988 for killing Utah | |
mother of three Maurine Hunsaker. Despite his recent cognitive decline, | |
Menzies “consistently and rationally understands” what is happening | |
and why he is facing execution, Judge Matthew Bates wrote in a court | |
order. | |
“Menzies has not shown by a preponderance of the evidence that his | |
understanding of his specific crime and punishment has fluctuated or | |
declined in a way that offends the Eighth Amendment,” which prohibits | |
cruel and unusual punishments, Bates said. | |
Menzies had previously selected a firing squad as his method of | |
execution. He would become only the sixth U.S. prisoner executed by | |
firing squad since 1977. | |
The Utah Attorney General’s Office is expected to file a death | |
warrant soon. | |
Menzies’ lawyers, who had argued his dementia was so severe that he | |
could not understand why he was being put to death, said they plan to | |
appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. | |
“Ralph Menzies is a severely brain-damaged, wheelchair-bound, | |
67-year-old man with dementia and significant memory problems,” his | |
attorney, Lindsey Layer, said in a statement. “It is deeply troubling | |
that Utah plans to remove Mr. Menzies from his wheelchair and oxygen | |
tank to strap him into an execution chair and shoot him to death.” | |
The U.S. Supreme Court has spared others prisoners with dementia from | |
execution, including an Alabama man in 2019 who had killed a police | |
officer. | |
Over nearly four decades, attorneys for Menzies filed multiple appeals | |
that delayed his death sentence, which had been scheduled at least | |
twice before it was pushed back. | |
Hunsaker, a 26-year-old married mother of three, was abducted by | |
Menzies from the convenience store where she worked. She was later | |
found strangled and her throat cut at a picnic area in the Wasatch | |
Mountains of northern Utah. Menzies had Hunsaker’s wallet and several | |
other belongings when he was jailed on unrelated matters. He was | |
convicted of first-degree murder and other crimes. | |
Matt Hunsaker, who was 10 years old when his mother was killed, said | |
Friday that the family was overwhelmed with emotion to know that | |
justice would finally be served. | |
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