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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Utah Supreme Court blocks execution of prisoner with dementia who chose
to die by firing squad
By Associated Press
Updated:
3:06 AM EDT, Sat August 30, 2025
Source: AP
The impending execution of a man by firing squad in Utah was blocked by
the state’s Supreme Court on Friday after his attorneys argued he
should be spared because he has dementia.
Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was set to be executed Sept. 5 for abducting
and killing Utah mother of three Maurine Hunsaker in 1986. When given a
choice decades ago, Menzies selected a firing squad as his method of
execution. He would have become only the sixth US prisoner executed by
firing squad since 1977.
Lawyers for Menzies had launched a new push beginning in early 2024 to
free him of his death sentence, arguing that the dementia their client
had developed during his 37 years on death row is so severe that he
uses a wheelchair, is dependent on oxygen and can’t understand why he
is facing execution.
The Utah Supreme Court said Menzies adequately alleged a substantial
change of circumstances and raised a significant question on his
fitness to be executed, concluding a lower court must reevaluate
Menzies’ competency.
“We acknowledge that this uncertainty has caused the family of
Maurine Hunsaker immense suffering, and it is not our desire to prolong
that suffering. But we are bound by the rule of law,” the court said
in the order.
A defense attorney for Menzies said his dementia had significantly
worsened since he last had a competency evaluation more than a year
ago.
“We look forward to presenting our case in the trial court,”
attorney Lindsey Layer said.
In a statement to media outlets, Hunsaker’s family members said they
“are obviously very distraught and disappointed at the Supreme
Court’s decision” and asked for privacy.
The Associated Press left phone and email messages Friday with a
spokesperson for the Utah Attorney General’s Office seeking comment
on the ruling.
Menzies is not the first person to receive a dementia diagnosis while
awaiting execution.
The US Supreme Court in 2019 of a man with dementia in Alabama, ruling
Vernon Madison was protected against execution under a constitutional
prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Madison, who killed a
police officer in 1985, died in prison in 2020.
That case followed earlier Supreme Court rulings barring executions of
people with severe mental illness. If a defendant cannot understand why
they are dying, the Supreme Court said, then an execution is not
carrying out the retribution that society is seeking.
Medical experts brought in by prosecutors during hearings into
Menzies’ competency said he still has the mental capacity to
understand his situation. Experts brought in by the defense said he
does not.
Hunsaker was abducted from a store Feb. 23, 1986. She later called her
husband to say she had been robbed and kidnapped but that she would be
released by her abductor that night.
Two days later, a hiker found her body at a picnic area about 16 miles
away in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Hunsaker had been strangled, her throat
slashed.
Utah’s last execution played out by lethal injection a year ago. The
state hasn’t used a firing squad since the 2010 execution of Ronnie
Lee Gardner. Earlier this year, South Carolina executed two prisoners
by firing squad.
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