The approaching execution of a person by firing squad in Utah was blocked by the state's Supreme Court docket on Friday after his attorneys argued he must be spared as a result of he has dementia.
Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was set to be executed Sept. 5 for abducting and killing Utah mom of three Maurine Hunsaker in 1986.
When given a alternative a long time in the past, Menzies chosen a firing squad as his methodology of execution.
He would have develop into solely the sixth US prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977.
Legal professionals for Menzies had launched a brand new push starting in early 2024 to free him of his dying sentence, arguing that the dementia their shopper had developed throughout his 37 years on dying row is so extreme that he makes use of a wheelchair, depends on oxygen and might't perceive why he's going through execution.
The Utah Supreme Court docket stated Menzies adequately alleged a considerable change of circumstances and raised a major query on his health to be executed, concluding a decrease court docket should reevaluate Menzies' competency.
“We acknowledge that this uncertainty has triggered the household of Maurine Hunsaker immense struggling, and it's not our want to lengthen that struggling.
However we're certain by the rule of regulation,” the court docket stated within the order.
A protection legal professional for Menzies stated his dementia had considerably worsened since he final had a competency analysis greater than a 12 months in the past.
“We stay up for presenting our case within the trial court docket,” legal professional Lindsey Layer stated.
In an announcement to media shops, Hunsaker's relations stated they “are clearly very distraught and dissatisfied on the Supreme Court docket's determination” and requested for privateness.
The Related Press left cellphone and electronic mail messages Friday with a spokesperson for the Utah Legal professional Normal's Workplace in search of touch upon the ruling.
Menzies shouldn't be the primary particular person to obtain a dementia analysis whereas awaiting execution.
The US Supreme Court docket in 2019 blocked the execution of a person with dementia in Alabama, ruling Vernon Madison was protected towards execution underneath a constitutional prohibition towards merciless and weird punishment.
Madison, who killed a police officer in 1985, died in jail in 2020.
That case adopted earlier Supreme Court docket rulings barring executions of individuals with extreme psychological sickness.
If a defendant can't perceive why they're dying, the Supreme Court docket stated, then an execution shouldn't be finishing up the retribution that society is in search of.
Medical specialists introduced in by prosecutors throughout hearings into Menzies' competency stated he nonetheless has the psychological capability to know his state of affairs.
Consultants introduced in by the protection stated he doesn't.
Hunsaker was kidnapped from a retailer Feb. 23, 1986.
She later referred to as her husband to say she had been robbed and kidnapped however that she could be launched by her abductor that evening.
Two days later, a hiker discovered her physique at a picnic space about 16 miles away in Massive Cottonwood Canyon. Hunsaker had been strangled, her throat slashed.
Utah's final execution performed out by deadly injection a 12 months in the past.
The state hasn't used a firing squad for the reason that 2010 execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner.
Earlier this 12 months, South Carolina executed two prisoners by firing squad.
