WEST JORDAN, Utah — In a new court filing, lawyers for death row inmate Ralph Leroy Menzies are asking a judge to disqualify the Utah Attorney General's Office from his case.
They argue there are too many conflicts with lawyers for the state representing multiple agencies while simultaneously seeking a death warrant to have Menzies executed and communications that ought to be walled off aren't really.
"The purpose of a conflict screen is to ensure that different agencies within the AG’s office operate independently, with their communications resembling those of counsel for distinct parties not employed by the same agency. However, in this case, the AGs’ communications are anything but independent," Menzies' attorney, Eric Zuckerman, wrote in the filing.
On Tuesday, 3rd District Court Judge Matthew Bates set a series of deadlines including a hearing next month to determine if the Utah Attorney General's Office ought to be disqualified. Lawyers for the state told the judge they intended to respond to Zuckerman's motion.
The case now appears to hinge upon that motion. If the attorney general's office is disqualified, new lawyers would have to be brought in and Menzies' execution — if it happens — could be years away.
Menzies is facing execution for the 1986 kidnapping and murder of Maurine Hunsaker. He has exhausted his appeals and the state has sought a death warrant. His lawyers have recently argued that Menzies suffers from dementia and to execute him now would be unconstitutional. On Tuesday, lawyers for the state said mental competency evaluations have largely been completed.
Judge Bates has scheduled a week long hearing in November where he will decide if Menzies is competent to be executed.
"I do appreciate his diligence on keeping the light of where this has got to go," Maurine Hunsaker's son, Matt, said of the judge outside of court.
Judge Bates will also consider another request made by Menzies attorneys: that he not be present for the competency hearings. Matt Hunsaker is objecting to that.
"This could very well be a tactic to try to use this if he doesn’t lose, he wasn’t in the court to be able to present. That’s why," he told FOX 13 News. "I’m sorry it’s an uncomfortable ride from the prison to here, it is what it is. He’s asked for this. He needs to attend it, he needs to be present. He needs to be seen, face the court, face myself, face everybody at the same time."
If he is ultimately executed, Menzies has chosen to die by firing squad. But he is part of a separate lawsuit against the state filed by a group of death row inmates challenging Utah's capital punishment statutes. That is currently under appeal to the Utah Supreme Court.
Another plaintiff in that lawsuit, Taberon Honie, was executed last month by lethal injection.
