Utah death row inmate Ralph Menzies will no longer be executed by firing squad Sept. 5.
The Utah Supreme Court ruled late Friday afternoon that Menzies’ mental competency needs to be re-evaluated because of the reported progression of his dementia, overturning a previous lower court finding. In their decision, the state’s highest court vacated Menzies’ death warrant pending the competency evaluation. That means his execution is now on hold and may ultimately be called off altogether.
Under both Utah and federal law, a person must be able to reach a rational understanding of why they’re being executed.
Menzies has vascular dementia, a disorder that gets worse over time. After his diagnosis, Utah Third District Court Judge Matthew Bates ruled in June that the 67-year-old was still competent to be executed.
But Menzies’ attorneys argued Bates’ ruling was based on a fall 2024 evaluation by a doctor and that since then his dementia had significantly worsened, warranting a new examination. Bates denied that request and Menzies’ attorneys appealed.
The Utah Supreme Court ruled that Bates was wrong.
In an opinion authored by Chief Justice Matthew Durrant, the court wrote that “Menzies’s vascular dementia and its progressive effects call into question whether he remains competent to be executed.”
Durrant wrote that Bates should have only looked at whether the evidence from Menzies’ attorneys met the threshold for a new look. Bates, Durrant wrote, made an error in also considering the state’s rebuttal.
In 1986, Menzies abducted Maurine Hunsaker from the gas station where she worked in Kearns. The body of the 26-year-old mother of three was later found tied to a tree in Big Cottonwood Canyon with her throat slit. Menzies was convicted of the brutal murder in 1988.
Durrant acknowledged that the long, uncertain road to Menzie’s execution has caused Hunsaker’s family suffering. The family has been vocal about their wish to see the death penalty carried out. “
“But we are bound by the rule of law,” Durrant wrote, “and the law dictates that if Menzies makes a prima facie showing a substantial change of circumstances that raises a significant question about his competency to be executed, a district court must reevaluate his competency, even though it may cause additional delay.”
Durrant pointed to recent mental evaluations by doctors hired by Menzies’ legal team, who reported that he no longer seemed aware of why he was being executed.
“Both expert reports raise serious and significant questions about whether Menzies is competent to be executed,” Durrant wrote.
The case will go back to the Third District Court to order a re-evaluation of Menzies’ competency by an independent doctor.
This was Menzies’ last legal avenue for delaying the execution. His attorneys also sought clemency from the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole in an emotional two-day hearing where the board also heard from Hunsaker’s family. The board denied Menzies’ request to commute his sentence to life in prison without the possibility for parole.