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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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