Utah: Prisoner With Dementia Won't Face Firing Squad

The impending execution of a man by firing squad in Utah was blocked by the state's Supreme Court on Friday after his attorneys argued he should be spared because he has dementia. As the AP reports, Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was set to be executed Friday for abducting and killing Utah mother of three Maurine Hunsaker in 1986. When given a choice decades ago, Menzies selected a firing squad as his method of execution. He would have become only the sixth US prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977. Lawyers for Menzies launched a new push beginning in early 2024 to free him of his death sentence, arguing that the dementia their client had developed during his 37 years on death row is so severe that he can't understand why he's facing execution.

The Utah Supreme Court said Menzies adequately alleged a substantial change of circumstances and raised a significant question on his fitness to be executed, concluding that a lower court must reevaluate Menzies' competency. "We acknowledge that this uncertainty has caused the family of Maurine Hunsaker immense suffering, and it is not our desire to prolong that suffering. But we are bound by the rule of law," the court said. Hunsaker's family said they "are obviously very distraught and disappointed at the Supreme Court's decision" and asked for privacy.

Menzies isn't the first person to receive a dementia diagnosis while awaiting execution. The US Supreme Court in 2019 blocked the execution of a man with dementia in Alabama, ruling Vernon Madison was protected against execution under a constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Madison died in prison in 2020. That case followed earlier Supreme Court rulings barring executions of people with severe mental illness. If a defendant can't understand why they're dying, the Supreme Court said, then an execution isn't carrying out the retribution that society is seeking. Medical experts brought in by prosecutors during hearings into Menzies' competency said he still has the mental capacity to understand his situation; experts brought in by the defense disagreed. Utah hasn't used a firing squad since 2010.