US EditionUtah judge to decide if convicted killer with dementia can be executed
- Attorneys for Ralph Leroy Menzies will appear before a Utah state judge on Wednesday for the final competency hearing in his death penalty case in Salt Lake City.
- Menzies’ legal team argues he has severe dementia and lacks rational understanding of his execution, while prosecutors say he remains mentally competent, reflecting similar issues in earlier Supreme Court rulings.
- Menzies, 67, was sentenced to death in 1988 for abducting and killing Maurine Hunsaker, a 26-year-old mother of three, and chose firing squad as his execution method, an option for Utah inmates sentenced before May 2004.
- Since 1977, only five U.S. Executions by firing squad have occurred, including two recent ones in South Carolina, while Menzies has been on death row for 37 years amid multiple appeals delaying his sentence.
- Judge Matthew Bates will issue an opinion after the hearing, which will determine if Menzies can be executed, with further hearings possible before any execution warrant is issued.
31 Articles
31 Articles
Utah judge says he will decide within 60 days if death row inmate is competent to be executed
A judge said he will decide within the next 60 days whether Ralph Menzies, convicted of kidnapping and killing a woman in 1986, is competent enough to be executed.
Will Ralph Menzies’ dementia keep him from a firing squad? Attorneys make final argument
Ralph Leroy Menzies during a competency hearing in 3rd District Court in West Jordan on Monday, Nov 18, 2024. (Pool photo by Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune)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…
Judge to decide if Ralph Menzies can be executed
Attorneys for a Utah man who has been on death row for 37 years are due before a state judge Wednesday as they seek to spare the convicted murderer from execution because he has dementia.Ralph Leroy Menzies was sentenced to die in 1988 for the killing of Maurine Hunsaker, a mother of three. His attorneys say the 67-year-old inmate's dementia is so severe that he cannot understand why he is facing execution.If he is deemed competent, Menzies coul…
Murderer on death row in desperate plea to be spared execution as he has dementia - The Mirror
Ralph Leroy Menzies' dementia is so severe he doesn not understand why he is facing execution - nearly 40 years after murdering mother-of-three Maurine Hunsaker in Utah
Associated Press News
Utah judge to decide if convicted killer with dementia can be executed
Attorneys for a Utah man who has been on death row for 37 years are due before a state judge as they seek to spare the convicted murderer from execution because he has dementia.
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