Utah Court Rules Prisoner Suffering from Dementia Requires a Competency Assessment Following the State’s Request for Execution

On February 13, 2024, the 3^rd District Court of Salt Lake City, Utah ruled that evi­dence pre­sent­ed by Ralph Menzies’ attor­neys of his demen­tia and cog­ni­tive decline requires a for­mal assess­ment of his com­pe­ten­cy to face exe­cu­tion by fir­ing squad. With its deci­sion, the court also vacat­ed a hear­ing sched­uled for February 23, at which the state of Utah intend­ed to request an exe­cu­tion war­rant for Mr. Menzies. As explained in his request for a com­pe­ten­cy hear­ing, Mr. Menzies has been diag­nosed with a major neu­rocog­ni­tive dis­or­der known as vas­cu­lar demen­tia, severe­ly lim­it­ing his ​“mem­o­ry, infor­ma­tion pro­cess­ing, abstract rea­son­ing, and prob­lem solv­ing.” Prosecutors do not agree with the asser­tion that Mr. Menzies is not com­pe­tent for exe­cu­tion, how­ev­er they do not object to fur­ther eval­u­a­tion of his competency.

“We are relieved that the court agrees the evi­dence of Ralph Menzies’s demen­tia requires a com­pe­ten­cy hear­ing,” said Lindsey Layer, an attor­ney for Mr. Menzies. ​“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.” 

Following an assess­ment in January 2024, Lynette M. Abrams-Silva, PhD, ABPP, a board-cer­ti­fied neu­ropsy­chol­o­gist, wrote that ​“while Mr. Menzies may have once under­stood the soci­etal rea­sons for the sen­tence of death, cog­ni­tive decline due to vas­cu­lar demen­tia has bro­ken the men­tal link between these rea­sons and the appli­ca­tion of the pun­ish­ment, and he him­self is unaware of this disconnection.”