'Your days are numbered': Utah sets man's firing squad execution despite dementia concerns

Utah has scheduled an inmate's execution by firing squad in September despite arguments from his attorneys that his dementia is severe enough that he won't understand why he's being killed.

Utah's 3rd District Court Judge Matthew Bates issued a warrant on Wednesday, July 9, setting the execution date for Ralph Menzies on Sept. 5. Menzies was convicted of the 1986 murder of 26-year-old Maurine Hunsaker, a married mother of three who was kidnapped, robbed, strangled, and found tied to a tree with her throat slit.

Hunsaker's son, Matthew Hunsaker, showed his support for Menzies' execution in a social media post, simply writing: "Your days are numbered." He told USA TODAY that he plans to attend the execution for closure.

Bates previously rejected arguments about Menzies' dementia, ruling in June that while the inmate exhibited cognitive decline, he "consistently and rationally understands the reasons for his death sentence.”

Menzies' attorney, Lindsey Layer, said in a statement on Wednesday that her client remains "a severely brain-damaged 67-year-old man with worsening dementia."

Here's what you need to know.

When and how will Ralph Menzies be executed?

Menzies is now set to be executed by firing squad on Sept. 5, a method the state hasn't used since 2010.

Though relatively rare, the firing squad has become more popular in recent years, with more states approving it and in the case of South Carolina, implementing it. That state has executed two inmates this year by firing squad.

Before that, only Utah had used the method, and only three times: in 1977, 1996 and 2010.

In addition to South Carolina, four states have legalized firing squads as an execution method: Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma and Idaho. Idaho, which approved firing squads in 2023, is set to make them the state's default method next year.

What was Ralph Menzies convicted of?

Meznies was convicted of murdering Maurine Hunsaker, who was just a few days shy of turning 27 when she was kidnapped from the gas station where she worked as an attendant in the Salt Lake City suburb of Kearns on Feb. 23, 1986.

No one witnessed the abduction but authorities became concerned when customers at the gas station reported that there was no attendant. Police found some of Hunsaker's belongings behind the counter and $70 missing from the register.

Later that night, Hunsaker called her husband, who was with a sheriff's deputy, and told him that she had been robbed and kidnapped but that her abductor intended to release her, according to court records.

Soon after, the line went dead. A hiker found Hunsaker's body two days later in a picnic area of Big Cottonwood Canyon just south of Salt Lake City. She had been strangled and her throat had been cut.

Detectives connected Menzies to the crime when they say they found Hunsaker's identification cards among his belongings when he was picked up on unrelated charges. Menzies maintained his innocence.

At trial, prosecutor Ernie Jones called Menzies a "psychopath," saying that "there is no therapy for the evil inside" him, according to an archived story in the Salt Lake Tribune. His defense attorney at the time, Brooke Wells, argued for leniency, saying that Menzies had a long history of being abused and neglected as a child and had been diagnosed with mental disorders, the Tribune reported.

Third District Court Judge Raymond Uno appeared to struggle with the death decision but ultimately said he needed to protect the community, citing Menzies' long history of violent offenses.

"It is with the heaviest of heart that I make this most difficult decision," he said, according to an another archived Salt Lake Tribune story. "I find the death penalty is appropriate."

What are the arguments over Ralph Menzies' competency?

Now nearly 40 years after the crime, Menzies' attorneys say he "no longer exhibits an awareness that he is being executed for the crime of murder," according to recently filed competency petition.

"As a result, he fails to meet both the constitutional standard of rational understanding and now, Utah’s statutory requirement that a person be aware of the reason for their execution," the petition says.

Menzies' current attorney, Lindsey Layer, criticized Judge Bates' decision to set the execution amid an ongoing appeal of his ruling finding Menzies competent. The execution date also comes despite what Layer said are new expert reports that have found that Menzies' cognitive functioning has continued to deteriorate since his competency hearing in November.

“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," Layer said. "Taking the life of someone with a terminal illness who is no longer a threat to anyone and whose mind and identity have been overtaken by dementia serves neither justice nor human decency.”

In his June ruling following the competency hearing, Judge Bates said that six of seven doctors diagnosed Menzies with a neurological disorder but disagreed about its extent and effect. He cited Menzies' responses during interviews with the doctors and recorded phone calls as showing the inmate is well enough to be executed.

"The evidence admitted at the hearing supports a finding that, despite his cognitive decline, Menzies consistently and rationally understands the reasons for his death sentence," he ruled.

Bates will reconsider Menzies' competency one more time during a hearing on July 23.

What does Maurine Hunsaker's son say about the developments?

Hunsaker's son, Matt Hunsaker, told USA TODAY that he believes Menzies' dementia arguments are a ploy and that the inmate's condition is being exaggerated in an effort to spare his life.

"I'm not buying that he doesn't understand what's going on," he said, adding that Menzies' attorneys "have brought no evidence before the court by any doctors, staff cellmates, anybody, that when he wakes up in the morning he doesn’t know where he's at. He knows he's in prison for killing my mom."

Hunsaker, who was 10 when his mother was killed, said she missed out on becoming a grandmother of 11 and on Monday, a great-grandmother to a little girl. Her two youngest children were only 18 months and 5 months old when she was killed and have no memories of her, he added.

He said if the execution moves forward, he'll be there, "just to see the closure myself."

"It's going to be hard for me because I am watching someone else's life being taken from them, but I also know what he did to my mom and I want to see it for my own two eyes."

Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Your days are numbered': Utah sets man's firing squad execution despite dementia concerns

Reporting by Amanda Lee Myers, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect