The petition, filed in Utah’s 3rd District Court on Monday, comes as the Utah Attorney General’s Office is gearing up to submit an execution warrant for Menzies, and will discuss the application during a hearing Wednesday. He has been sentenced to die by firing squad.

Menzies, who has spent the last 40 years on death row for the 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker, was found competent to be executed by a judge in early June, capping off a review that began in November and included testimony from a number of medical professionals.

Both state and federal law require that death row inmates have an understanding of why they’re being executed. While all medical professionals found that Menzies’ dementia impaired him in some way, whether he still understands why the state is pursuing the death penalty was debated — doctors hired by Menzies’ legal team say he isn’t competent and doctors hired by the state say he is.

Ultimately, 3rd District Judge Matthew Bates wrote that Menzies does have dementia, but it’s not enough to prevent him from understanding why he’s being punished. In the year since his initial evaluation, Menzies’ attorneys say his cognitive decline has gotten so bad that another review is necessary.

According to court documents, a competency revaluation can happen if the inmate has experienced “a substantial change in circumstances” since the first evaluation. Menzies’ attorneys are requesting a doctor from the Utah Department of Health and Human Services who evaluated Menzies last year to revisit the inmate in a “limited revaluation.”

“We are asking the court to take a second look because Ralph Menzies has significantly declined. He has advanced vascular disease resulting in terminal dementia, and cannot remember why he is being punished, or even that he is under a sentence of death. He now needs help to eat, clean, and breathe — and he no longer meets the legal standard for execution. The Constitution does not allow the government to execute someone who lacks even a basic understanding of what is happening to them. This petition is about upholding that principle,” said Lindsey Layer, one of Menzies’ attorneys, in a statement.

Menzies was evaluated by two different doctors in the last week who both found the inmate “has undergone significant physical and cognitive decline,” according to court documents.

“Not only does he not understand the link between his crime and punishment, but there is a significant question as to whether he is aware of the punishment he is about to suffer or why he is to suffer it,” reads the petition filed on Monday.

Menzies struggles to get out of bed and dress himself, and is unable to retrieve his meal tray or clean his cell, according to the petition. His attorneys say he’s lost his ability to “engage in relatively coherent and adult conversations,” and now speaks in “simplistic and immature terms.”

During the most recent evaluations, Menzies would say things like, “they don’t tell me all the details” and “they can only lock you up or kill you,” when asked why he was sentenced to death, per court documents. He believes the judge’s June decision declaring him competent to be executed “means they tell me bye-bye,” according to the petition.

His mental state is made worse by a recent, “severe hypoxic event,” where the brain is deprived of oxygen, according to his attorneys.

Menzies was convicted of murder in 1988 after he kidnapped Hunsaker, a 26-year-old gas station clerk, and took her up Big Cottonwood Canyon where she was later found tied to a tree with her throat slashed.

Menzies spent decades on death row, and in recent years his health has deteriorated. After falling several times in prison he was diagnosed with vascular dementia, caused when the brain’s blood flow is disrupted, leading to memory loss and declining cognitive function, according to court testimony. An MRI exam showed Menzies’ brain tissue is deteriorating.

In Utah, death row inmates sentenced before May 2004 had a choice between lethal injection or firing squad. Menzies, when he was sentenced in 1988, chose the firing squad. For those sentenced after 2004, the default method of execution is lethal injection, unless the necessary drugs are not available.

Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.