Pat Reavy interned with KSL NewsRadio in 1989 and has been a full-time journalist for either KSL NewsRadio, Deseret News or KSL.com since 1991. For the past 25 years, he has worked primarily the cops and courts beat.
SALT LAKE CITY — Attorneys for the state say Ralph Leroy Menzies's request for a hearing to potentially change his death sentence to life without parole should not be granted simply because he says he has dementia.
"He understands the world. He is not confused. While he needs help with some things, he has not forgotten how to care for himself. If he is scared, it's not an irrational fear caused by dementia; it is instead a rational fear of his impending death. He understands the steps left to him before all barriers to his execution are surmounted," the Utah Attorney General's Office said in its response.Menzies, 67, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on Sept. 5. He was convicted of robbing, kidnapping and brutally killing Maurine Hunsaker, a 26-year-old mother of three, in 1986.His attorneys, however, have filed a petition with the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole requesting a commutation hearing, citing his continued declining mental health and specifically dementia. The board has the power to change Menzies' death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.On Monday, the state's redacted response to Menzie's petition for commutation was made public. In addition, the state filed its response to Menzie's "Notice of Mental Condition Related to Competency," which essentially seeks to put the commutation process on hold until the issue of competency can be addressed.In their 55-page response to Menzie's request to have his sentence changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors note in their opening paragraph that Menzies has argued that his scheduled execution "will not be justice," but rather "a needless display of violence.""This is an ironic description given that Menzies utterly ignores the reality of his conduct that brings him to the execution chamber in the first place," the state responded.Prosecutors say Menzies' life "has been marked by relentless criminality," which includes "multiple armed robberies and multiple kidnappings" and robbing a cab driver "then nearly the victim's arm off." He was already on parole when he murdered Hunsaker."There is no question about Menzies' guilt. The evidence of it is overwhelming. Nor is there a question about the brutality of his crime. There is also no question about Menzies' unflagging criminality during his brief periods of freedom," the state wrote in its res
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