Utah high court pauses firing squad execution of man with dementia

Lower court to decide if Ralph Leroy Menzies, who killed Maurine Hunsaker in 1986, is competent to face execution

The impending execution of a man by firing squad in Utah was blocked by the state's supreme court on Friday after his attorneys argued he should be spared because he has dementia.

Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was set to be executed on 5 September for abducting and killing Utah mother of three Maurine Hunsaker in 1986. When given a choice decades ago, Menzies selected a firing squad as his method of execution. He would have become only the sixth US prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977.