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SALT LAKE CITY — Attorneys for death row inmate Ralph Leroy Menzies say he has dementia and his cognitive deterioration would make his execution unconstitutional.
They filed a petition in 3rd District Court Tuesday, calling for a mental competency examination.
"Ralph Menzies suffers from dementia. 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," the petition states, while also noting "his cognitive state is so impaired that he is unable to rationally understand the state's rationale for his execution."
Menzies, 65, was convicted of aggravated murder, a capital offense, on March 9, 1988, and sentenced to death. He was found guilty of killing Maurine Hunsaker, a mother of three, after kidnapping her from a Kearns convenience store on Feb. 23, 1986, and taking her to Storm Mountain, in Big Cottonwood Canyon, where he tied her to a tree, strangled her and slit her throat.
An execution warrant was originally signed in 1988. The death sentence went through multiple appeals and was affirmed multiple times. In October, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his case, Menzies had exhausted all appeal options.
The state filed a motion for the issuance of another execution warrant on Jan. 17. But Menzies' defense attorneys said in the petition that executing their client would violate state law, as a mentally incompetent person cannot receive the death penalty.
"Mr. Menzies is unable to form a rational understanding of the reasons for his execution. Specifically, his awareness of the link between his crime and punishment 'has little or no relation to the understanding shared by the community as a whole,'" the petition states. "As Mr. Menzies approaches his execution days or weeks later, he is likely to have no recollection of why his clemency application was denied, or even that he applied for clemency at all. In the absence of the memory of the justification for the denial of his clemency petition, Mr. Menzies would be rendered incapable of understanding why society is unwilling to show him mercy, and therefore would not be able to understand why society is punishing him."
The motion states Menzies began experiencing chronic dizziness in 2018 while at the Utah State Prison.
"Mr. Menzies now uses a walker to navigate the prison and his condition is deteriorating quickly. In the past two years, he has lost over 75 pounds," the petition states. "While struggling with declining physical health, Mr. Menzies has also experienced a persistent decrease in cognitive functioning. His episodes of confusion, difficulty recalling conversations with others, frequent misplacement of items, and lapses in awareness of his daily schedule on the cell block are all indicative of vascular dementia. Notably, his capacity to retain learned information has become severely compromised, as evidenced by his ability to discuss his case in one moment only to have no memory of the conversation or the information discussed the next day."
"Given Ralph's cognitive deterioration, executing him can serve no legitimate purpose of punishment and thus would violate the Constitution," one of his attorneys, Eric Zuckerman, said in a prepared statement.
Menzies' next court hearing is scheduled on Feb. 23.
