Salt Lake City - The lawyer for an Utah man has been on death row for 37 years and will be in front of a state judge Wednesday as they try to save the convicted murderer from execution because he suffers from dementia.

Ralph Leroy Menzies was sentenced to death in 1988 for killing a mother of three. His lawyer said the 67-year-old inmate had dementia so severe that he didn't understand why he was executed.

If he is considered capable, Menzies could be one of the next U.S. prisoners to be executed after firing the squad after using the method on two South Carolina men in recent weeks: a man was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 2001 and killing a layoff in 2004.

Medical experts brought by prosecutors say Menzies still has the mental capacity to understand his situation, while those raised by the defense say he did not. Menzies' attorney Eric Zuckerman said Wednesday's hearing will be the last before Judge Matthew Bates' comments.

Menzies are not the first to receive a diagnosis of dementia while waiting for execution.

In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the execution of a man with dementia in Alabama, ruling that Vernon Madison was protected from a constitutional injunction from cruel and unusual punishment. Madison killed a policeman in 1985 and died in jail in 2020.

The case follows an early Supreme Court ruling that prohibits people with severe mental illness from enforcing them. The Supreme Court said that if the defendants did not understand why they died, the execution would not enforce the retribution society was seeking.

"It's not only related to mental illness. It can also be the result of brain damage, stroke or dementia - the basic question is whether he has a rational understanding of the cause of the execution."

More than half of all prisoners sentenced to death in the United States spent more than 18 years on death row cells, the group said.

Menzies earlier chose a shooting squad as the way to perform. Utah death row inmates were sentenced before May 2004 and were given a choice between lethal injections. For inmates sentenced to states in the state after that date, a fatal injection is performed unless drugs are not available.

Since 1977, only five prisoners in the United States have been fired. The three were in Utah, the most recent in 2010 and the others were in South Carolina.

Hunsaker is a married mother of 26 years old who was kidnapped by a gas station where she worked. She was later found strangled and her throat was cut open in the picnic area of ​​the Wasage Mountains in northern Utah. Menzies were also in prison for unrelated matters, along with Hunsaker's wallet and several other industries. He was convicted of first-degree murder and other crimes.

Menzies' lawyers filed multiple appeals over nearly forty years, delaying his death penalty, which was scheduled at least twice before being postponed.

Zachman said there will be further hearings before any execution warrant is issued.