Mental competency hearing for Utah death row inmate Menzies to resume in December
Nov 22, 2024, 4:57 PM | Updated: 5:24 pm
WEST JORDAN — A hearing weighing whether Utah death row inmate Ralph Menzies is competent to be executed will resume in December.
Multiple days had been set aside on the court calendar this week to answer the question, but proceedings ended around noon Friday with still more testimony and arguments expected and the next court date was set for Dec. 9.
Menzies was sentenced to death in 1988 in the kidnapping and killing of Maurine Hunsaker, who was discovered tied to a tree with her throat slit in Big Cottonwood Canyon.
State experts and experts retained by Menzies’ legal team have disagreed this week over whether Menzies is in fact competent.
In court Friday morning, Ryan Green — a neuropsychologist working for the state — said he believed Menzies was competent and seemed capable of understanding complex topics.
“He is able to retain a level of sophistication of language, of vocabulary, ways of communicating about legal things that suggests that he is competent, that he understands what is going on,” Green said.
Attorney Eric Zuckerman and the rest of Menzies’ team has argued to the contrary.
“Our experts are highly qualified, they’re board certified and we believe the evidence we presented really presents a strong case as to why Mr. Menzies has vascular dementia,” Zuckerman told reporters after Friday’s hearing.
Zuckerman said the U.S. Supreme Court has been clear on matters like this one.
“If an individual does not rationally understand why they’re being executed, then society’s goals of deterrence and retribution are not being vindicated, so Supreme Court case law says you have to rationally understand. And if not, there’s really no point in an execution going forward,” he said.
If found competent, Menzies could face a firing squad as early as this spring.
Hunsaker’s son, Matthew Hunsaker, was present in court Friday.
“I believe it’s fair to say that everybody in the courtroom now feels like they have vascular dementia after listening to it all week and all the reports,” Matthew Hunsaker said. “(Both sides) have valid points. It’s going to come down to Judge (Matthew) Bates.”
Bates cautioned that even though arguments and testimony would resume on Dec. 9, a ruling likely would not come that day either and would arrive after the fact in written form.
