Will Ralph Menzies’ dementia keep him from a firing squad? Attorneys make final argument

After nearly 40 years on death row, a judge will soon determine whether Ralph Menzies’ dementia is advanced enough to spare him from being executed by firing squad. 

Lawyers for the 67-year-old convicted murderer say his brain is so damaged he can’t form a “rational understanding” of why the state is pursuing the death penalty — prosecutors for the Utah Attorney General’s Office say while Menzies might be impaired, he is still “clearly competent.”  

Attorneys for both sides met at the 3rd District Courthouse in West Jordan on Wednesday to make their final oral arguments before Judge Matthew Bates, who will issue a ruling sometime in the next 60 days. It marked what is likely one of the final hearings to determine whether Menzies is competent enough to face execution, the end of a monthslong process that included testimony from numerous medical experts and the victim’s family.  

The competency hearing began in November, but due to scheduling and logistical conflicts, final oral arguments were pushed to May 7.  

Menzies was brought into the West Jordan courtroom at about 2 p.m. Wednesday. The death row inmate sat in a wheelchair with oxygen tubes running up his nose during the hearing, sporting a scruffy, somewhat unkempt white beard and short, receding brownish-grey hair. He would occasionally lean over to speak with members of his legal team, but otherwise sat in silence during the roughly hour-long hearing. 

Menzies was sentenced to death in 1988 after he kidnapped and murdered Maurine Hunsaker, a 26-year-old gas station clerk. Menzies took her up Big Cottonwood Canyon, where she was later found tied to a tree with her throat slashed.

In recent years, Menzies’ health has deteriorated, his attorneys say. After falling several times in prison, he was diagnosed with vascular dementia, where the brain’s blood flow is disrupted, leading to memory loss and declining cognitive function. An MRI exam showed Menzies’ brain tissue is deteriorating, and his balance is fraught, causing him to fall several times each month.

Utah’s medical experts say Ralph Menzies is competent to be executed. His attorneys disagree

According to his attorneys, Menzies is so impaired by his dementia that he does not have a “rational understanding” of why he is facing execution, meaning he can’t make the link between his crime and the punishment. That means society’s goal of retribution and deterrence — the foundational goals of the death penalty — aren’t being fulfilled, they say. 

Per Utah code, and U.S. Supreme Court case law, that means he should be deemed too incompetent to face an execution, his lawyers say.

On Wednesday, Menzies’ attorney Lindsey Layer pointed to MRI results that showed the death row inmate had “the highest level” of brain damage, with parts of it atrophied and filled with fluid. 

There are also the physical signs, backed by the medical experts hired by Menzies’ attorneys who found him to be incompetent. He struggles with basic activities, Layer said, like forgetting to bathe, flush the toilet or renew medication, and often has issues with his personal finances and the prison commissary (a store for inmates).  

“His inability to engage in what is a fairly simple process of renewing his medication,” said Layer, “demonstrates his inability to engage in that analytical thought that is necessary to have a rational understanding of the state’s reasoning for his execution.” 

That rational understanding was at the heart of Layer’s argument, and she repeatedly underscored the difference between awareness and understanding. 

“Mr. Menzies can understand the concrete things,” Layer said. “He can understand, ‘I was sentenced to death and the state is going to kill me.’ But what he can’t understand is the how or why.” 

Daniel Boyer with the Utah Attorney General’s Office pushed back on the standard of competency outlined by Layer, telling the judge Menzies simply needs to understand why the state is pursuing his execution. 

If the court agrees with that standard, Boyer said, “he’s clearly competent.” 

Boyer encouraged Bates to listen to recordings of Menzies’ recent phone conversations, which show “his ability to converse, to problem solve” — and Menzies’ use of his prison-issued tablet. 

“I think the tablet is a good indicator of his competency,” Boyer said, noting that he can buy items from the commissary, check his finances, and access prison rules and policies. “This showed an extraordinarily high level of functioning.” 

Matt Hunsaker, Maurine’s son, gave his first statement to the court since the competency hearing began last year. In the decades since his mother’s murder, he’s attended hearing after hearing, read countless rulings and court orders, and advocated nonstop for Menzies’ execution. 

It’s the end of the road for Hunsaker. If Bates finds Menzies incompetent to be executed, he won’t protest the ruling. 

“I don’t envy you for the decision you have to make,” Hunsaker told Bates. “I just want to put it out there — this man took my mom from a gas station where she was trying to support her family.” 

Speaking to reporters outside of the courtroom, Hunsaker repeated a familiar sentiment — he’s tired of this. 

“It’s taken a toll on the whole family. There is some closure possibly ahead, but 39 years, two months, nine days, that’s a long time,” he said. “I’ve got a grandbaby now, it’s time to shift the focus of wasting time on this, and bring a new little girl into the family.” 

Hunsaker didn’t want to speculate on how Bates will rule, telling Utah News Dispatch “there’s good arguments on both sides.” 

“My personal opinion is he’s competent. He knows what he did. It’s time to stop with the games. He needs to be executed. And again, I believe this is just a delay tactic,” he said. 

Second South Carolina death row inmate chooses to die by firing squad

Bates, while asking several questions during both Menzies’ and the state’s arguments, offered no indication of how he would rule. He concluded Wednesday’s hearing telling attorneys that he’ll issue a ruling in the next 60 days. 

In Utah, death row inmates sentenced before May 2004 had a choice between lethal injection and firing squad. For those sentenced after 2004, the default method of execution is lethal injection, unless the necessary drugs are not available.

Firing squads are rare in the U.S. But earlier this year, South Carolina executed two inmates by firing squad — Brad Sigmon and Mikal Mahdi — making it the first state other than Utah to utilize the method in the last several decades. According to the Associated Press, at least 144 civilian prisoners have been executed by firing squad in the U.S. since 1608, almost all of them in Utah.