Utah high court pauses firing squad execution of man with dementia | Utah

The imminent execution of a man dismissing the squad in Utah was blocked by the Supreme Court of the State on Friday after his lawyers argued that he should be spared because he has dementia.

Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was to be executed on September 5 for having removed and killed Utah, mother of three from Maurine Hunsaker in 1986. When he gave a choice there is a choice, Menzies selected a shooting team as a method of execution. He only became the sixth American prisoner executed by the shooting team since 1977.

The lawyers of Menzies had launched a new push starting at the beginning of 2024 to release it from his death sentence, arguing that the dementia that their client had developed during his 37 years of death is so serious that he uses a wheelchair, depends on oxygen and cannot understand why he is confronted with the execution.

The Supreme Court of Utah said that Menzies adequately alleged a substantial change in circumstances and had raised an important question about its ability to execute, concluding that a lower court must reassess its powers.

“We recognize that this uncertainty caused Maurine Hunsaker to the family of Maurine Hunsaker, and it is not our desire to extend this suffering. But we are linked by the rule of law,” said the court in the order.

A defense lawyer for Menzies said that his dementia had grown considerably since his last skills assessment over a year ago.

“We are impatient to present our case before the court of first instance,” said lawyer Lindsey Layer.

In a declaration to the media, the members of the Hunsaker family said that they “were obviously very distraught and disappointed by the decision of the Supreme Court” and asked for private life.

Friday, the Associated Press left the phone and the emails by e-mail with a spokesperson for the Office General of UTAH requesting comments on the decision.

Menzies is not the first person to receive a diagnosis of dementia while waiting for execution.

In 2019, the United States Supreme Court blocked the execution of a man with dementia in Alabama, judging that Vernon Madison was protected against execution under a constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual sanctions. Madison, who killed a police officer in 1985, died in prison in 2020.

This case has followed previous decisions from the Supreme Court prohibiting executions of people with a serious mental illness. If an accused cannot understand why he is dying, the Supreme Court has declared, then an execution does not carry out the remuneration that the company is looking for.

The medical experts brought by prosecutors during the hearings of the competence of Menzies said that he always had the mental capacity to understand his situation. The experts brought by the defense said that he did not.

Hunsaker was kidnapped in a store on February 23, 1986. She later called her husband to say that she had been stolen and kidnapped, but that she would be released by her abductor that evening.

Two days later, a hiker found his body in a picnic area at around 16 miles (25 km) in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Hunsaker had been strangled and his throat was cut.

The last execution of UTAH took place by lethal injection a year ago. The state has not used a shooting team since the execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010. Earlier this year, the South Carolina executed two prisoners by shooting a team.