A Utah judge on Wednesday set an execution date for a man with dementia who has been on death row for 37 years, even as his lawyers file appeals and argue his condition is worsening. Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, is to be executed Sept. 5 for abducting and killing Utah mother of three Maurine Hunsaker in 1986. Menzies selected a firing squad as his method of execution decades ago. He would become only the sixth US prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977. Judge Matthew Bates signed the death warrant a month after he ruled Menzies "consistently and rationally" understands why he is facing execution. Attorneys for Menzies have petitioned the court for a reassessment, but Bates said the pending appeal was not basis to stop him from setting a date.
Bates did, however, schedule a July 23 hearing to evaluate the new competency petition, reports the AP. Menzies' attorneys say his dementia has gotten so severe that he cannot understand his legal case. "We remain hopeful that the courts or the clemency board will recognize the profound inhumanity of executing a man who is experiencing steep cognitive decline and significant memory loss," said Lindsey Layer, an attorney for Menzies.
The US Supreme Court has at times spared prisoners with dementia from execution, including an Alabama man in 2019 who had killed a police officer. If a defendant cannot understand why they are being put to death, the high court said, then an execution is not carrying out the retribution that society is seeking. For Hunsaker's son Matt, who was 10 years old when his mother was killed, it has been "hard to swallow that it's taken this long" to get justice. "You issue the warrant today, you start a process for our family," he told the judge Wednesday. "It puts everybody on the clock. We've now introduced another generation of my mom, and we still don't have justice served."
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