A Utah judge will soon decide whether doctors should once again evaluate death row inmate Ralph Menzies’ mental competency, which would delay his Sept. 5 firing squad execution.
Utah Third District Court Judge Matthew Bates heard arguments July 23 over a request from Menzies’ attorneys for another evaluation. Bates said he will take both sides under advisement and issue a written ruling.
“I will try to issue a decision as quickly as possible,” Bates said. “I know time is ticking, so we’ll go as fast as we can.”
Menzies’ attorney argued that the 67-year-old’s vascular dementia and cognitive decline have worsened significantly in the year since he was last evaluated by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. When Menzies was brought into the courtroom, one police officer pushed his wheelchair while another trailed closely behind with an oxygen tank, its tubing looped under his nose.
In 1986, Menzies abducted Maurine Hunsaker, a 26-year-old mother of three, from the Kearns gas station where she worked. Her body was later found in Big Cottonwood Canyon, tied to a tree with her throat slit. He was convicted of her murder in 1988.
After spending nearly 40 years on death row, Bates signed Menzies’ death warrant earlier this month and scheduled his execution. That came after a June ruling that found while he does have dementia, Menzies is competent enough to be executed.
Under both Utah and federal law, a person must be mentally competent to be executed, meaning they must understand why they are dying.
Menzies’ attorney Eric Zuckerman argued Bates’ June decision was based on an evaluation that is now a year old. Within the last few months, Zuckerman said Menzies’ condition has declined, documented by experts and prison caseworkers. He said Menzies can no longer do basic daily tasks on his own, and has had persistent problems breathing, including at least one severe hypoxic event, which Zuckerman said can accelerate dementia.
When evaluated by a neuropsychologist commissioned by the defense in June, Zuckerman said Menzies did not show rational understanding of why he is being executed. He also failed to identify that he had been charged with murder. The state’s attorneys contested that description, saying they don’t have enough documentation of Menzies’ conversation to have full context and took issue with the phrasing of the doctor’s questions.
Zuckerman said Menzies was diagnosed at the beginning of 2024. Physical and cognitive decline are typical as the disease progresses.
“Mr. Menzies’ dementia has gotten worse. That's what dementia does, it gets worse,” Zuckerman said.
If Bates did grant the new evaluation by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, Zuckerman said the doctor would have to examine Menzies and compile an independent report within 60 days.
“Set a hearing for the 61st day and bring it in. Let's hear the testimony on it. If the court finds him competent, then issue the warrant,” Zuckerman said. “But allowing it to go forward when we have this evidence, uncontested, is constitutionally intolerable.”
Daniel Boyer of the Utah Attorney General’s Office said the state had listened to Menzies’ phone calls since May. Those records are under a protective order, but Boyer described their contents as being highly relevant to the competency determination and said they “only further confirm” the state’s belief that another evaluation isn’t warranted.
Boyer argued Menzies does have sufficient understanding of his sentence, and there is not enough evidence to show otherwise. To grant the defense’s petition, Boyer said Menzies’ legal team needed to “specifically allege a substantial change in circumstances and it has to raise a significant question about his competency to be executed.”
Before the hearing closed, Matt Hunsaker, the victim’s son, addressed the court. He questioned whether Menzies was playing a game. Hunsaker said Menzies is smart and has spent decades on death row.
“We're now before the court deciding whether he's played the system long enough to where he gets to find a technicality to spare his life and basically deny justice for my mom.”
Menzies’ attorneys have also asked the Utah Board of Pardons & Parole for clemency. The board will soon decide whether to grant a commutation hearing.
