SALT LAKE CITY — The execution of Ralph Menzies will be delayed after a court ordered a competency evaluation for the death row inmate who allegedly suffers from dementia.
Because of Tuesday's ruling, a Feb. 23 hearing scheduled for an execution warrant has been canceled.
Menzies lawyers had argued that because their client suffers from dementia, his planned execution would be unconstitutional as he does not have "rational understanding" of why he stands to be put to death.
The Utah Attorney General's office had previously filed a warrant for the execution of Menzies, who was previously sentenced to death for the 1986 kidnapping and murder of Maurine Hunsaker.
In his ruling, Judge Matthew Bates ordered to stay all proceedings in the execution until an evaluation of Menzies is performed by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. The department will appoint two examiners who are not involved in Menzies' current treatment.
The examination is to be performed within 60 days.
“We are relieved that the court agrees the evidence of Ralph Menzies’s dementia requires a competency hearing,” said attorney Lindsey Layer, “Ralph’s cognitive functioning has severely declined, leaving him without a rational understanding of why Utah plans to kill him. We are confident the evaluators will recognize that Ralph is not competent to be executed.”
Menzies exhausted all his appeals in October.
