A district court judge was wrong when he issued an execution warrant for Ralph Menzies amid questions about whether the death row inmate is competent, the man’s attorneys argued to the Utah Supreme Court Thursday morning.
The attorneys asked the state’s high court to delay Menzies’ firing squad execution, which is currently scheduled for Sept. 5. Instead, they say Menzies, who has vascular dementia, should be evaluated once more to determine whether he can legally be executed.
This appeal to the Utah Supreme Court is likely Menzies’ last chance to delay his scheduled execution. Utah’s parole board earlier this week rejected his pleas for mercy, and declined to commute his sentence.
Third District Court Judge Matthew Bates concluded in an early June ruling that Menzies did have dementia, but that he was not so mentally impaired that the death penalty could not be carried out. (Utah’s and the United States’ constitutions prohibit the government from executing someone if they don’t understand that they are being executed and the reasons why.)
Bates based his legal conclusions on expert evaluations that were completed a year ago. Lindsey Layer, one of Menzies’ attorneys, told the Utah Supreme Court Thursday that her client’s mental state has declined since those evaluations. At that time, Menzies could clearly answer why Utah officials were planning to execute him.
But that’s changed, Layer told the justice: In late June, an evaluator asked him about his upcoming execution again — and Menzies could not “form the thoughts” to articulate the reasons for his execution, Layer said.
“Mr. Menzies has a progressive disease,” she argued, “it is only getting worse.”
Daniel Boyer, a lawyer with the Utah attorney general’s office, argued in response that the bar should be high to re-evaluate someone’s competency, and that hasn’t been met. He further argued that someone is competent to be executed if they can understand the connection between their crime and the punishment — a connection he says Menzies understands.
The justices peppered attorneys on both sides with technical legal questions during their arguments for about two hours on Thursday. The state’s high court is expected to issue a decision in writing prior to the Sept. 5 execution.
Matt Hunsaker, who was 10 years old when Menzies killed his mother, listened to the arguments with his family in the courtroom on Thursday. He’s still optimistic that the execution will happen, he told reporters after the hearing, but he worried that if the Utah Supreme Court orders more competency evaluations, the death sentence will never happen.
If the Utah Supreme Court delays the execution, Matt Hunsaker said: “I give up.”