Does Ralph Leroy Menzies understand he is on Utah’s death row? Can the 66-year-old comprehend why he was sentenced to death in 1988 for the killing of 26-year-old mother Maurine Hunsaker?
This week, 3rd District Judge Matthew Bates is tasked with determining whether Menzies is mentally competent. The state must argue he is in order for his execution to be carried out. Or rather, as defense attorney Eric Zuckerman put it Monday morning, the defense must prove he is not if their client is to avoid capital punishment.
Menzies sat in a wheelchair inside Bates’ West Jordan courtroom early Monday, his hands cuffed in front of him. The hearings could stretch into Friday, but he is not expected to appear all week.
That’s because his attorneys contended that doing so would prove painful and uncomfortable for their client, who they say uses a walker at the prison and has shoulder problems and dementia. Bates allowed him to stay only until both parties have reached “maximum benefit” by his presence.
The competency arguments come after state prosecutors in January filed documents requesting that a judge sign off on an execution warrant to carry out his death. About a week later, Menzies’ attorneys first broached the competency issue.
In court this week, his legal team has argued that Utah’s standard in determining competency to face the death penalty is “unconstitutional” in light of federal rulings — contending that while Utah relies on what he called the “awareness standard,” the federal government has dictated the need for prisoners who are executed to understand the meaning of their execution and the link between the crime, its severity and correlating punishment.
State prosecutors disagreed, but much of their arguments had more to do with Menzies’ actual mental state than the competency standard the court will ultimately decide to follow.
Zuckerman and his team called two witnesses Monday, each with years of experience in the neurology field — neuropsychologist Erin David Bigler and neurologist Thomas M. Hyde.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Witness Erin David Bigler shows a model of the brain to 3rd District Judge Matthew Bates during Ralph Leroy Menzies' competency hearing in 3rd District Court in West Jordan, on Monday, Nov 18, 2024.
Bigler showed several different images of Menzies’ brain scans, pointing out several areas of white matter hypertensities and other concerning areas that he said were indicative of cognitive issues.
Hyde described worsening symptoms Menzies is experiencing that he said are consistent with vascular dementia, a kind of dementia caused by a lack of oxygen making it to the brain. He detailed how Menzies met several risk factors associated with the disease and how he’s reportedly had several medical issues over the past few years that point to the issue.
At one point, Zuckerman asked him if vascular dementia can affect one’s typical sleep schedule, to which Hyde replied affirmatively. Zuckerman then drew attention to his client, who was seated in his wheelchair with his head bowed and eyes closed.
Hyde evaluated Menzies in person twice — once in fall 2023 and again the following spring. he said. He noticed remarkable mental decline in the space between their visits, he testified.
When he arrived to their second appointment, he said Menzies was significantly more unkempt, performed more poorly on tasks such as drawing the time on an analogue clock, and he was less able to interpret the nonliteral meanings of idioms — something that has a bearing on a dementia patient’s ability to grasp the nuances of complicated legal systems and consequences.
The prosecution has also had professionals examine Menzies and, throughout the week, both sides will get a chance to more fully present their arguments.
Bates is expected to issue a decision sometime Friday or later.
