SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Jan. 23, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Federal public defenders for long-time death row inmate Ralph Menzies, convicted of the February 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker, have filed new court papers claiming he is “incompetent to be executed.”
The filing, a petition for inquiry as to competency to be executed, claims that Menzies, 65, has been diagnosed with dementia, and so “is unable to rationally understand the State’s rationale for his execution.” Because of that, “the execution will violate the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which “prohibit(s) a State from carrying out a sentence of death upon a prisoner who is insane.”
The execution of Menzies would also violate Utah code prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.
The filing comes days after a Jan. 17 filing to request a hearing to seek a warrant for Menzies’ execution. That hearing has been set for Feb. 23.
“Menzies has no pending action challenging either his capital murder conviction or death sentence,” the Utah Attorney General’s Office stated. “Therefore no legal reason exists to delay issuing an execution warrant.”
Menzies was convicted in 1988 of the aggravated murder, kidnapping and robbery of Hunsaker, a 26-year-old mother of three and convenience store clerk taken from her job in Kearns. Her body was found two days later, tied to a tree and with her throat cut, in a Storm Mountain picnic area in Big Cottonwood Canyon.
After his conviction, Menzies had indicated his prefered method of execution as firing squad.
The filing Tuesday says a recent MRI scan “shows significant brain atrophy, chronic micro-hemorrhages, and damaged brain tissue, which have resulted in substantial deficits in Mr. Menzies’s learning, memory, information processing, abstract reasoning, and problem solving. Mr. Menzies was recently evaluated by a neurologist who confirmed a diagnosis of vascular dementia and a neuropsychologist who has determined that, as a result of Mr. Menzies’s dementia, his cognitive state is so impaired that he is unable to rationally understand the State’s rationale for his execution.”
Gephardt Daily will have more information as the case develops.
