A convicted killer in Utah who developed dementia during his time on death row is competent enough to be executed, a state judge ruled on Friday.

Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was found guilty and sentenced to death in March 1988 for the 1986 killing of Maurine Hunsaker, a 26-year-old mother of three.

Judge Matthew Bates said Menzies "consistently and rationally understands" what is happening and why he is facing execution, despite his recent cognitive decline.

"Menzies has not shown by a preponderance of the evidence that his understanding of his specific crime and punishment has fluctuated or declined in a way that offends the Eighth Amendment," which prohibits cruel and unusual punishments, Bates said in his court order.

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Menzies selected the firing squad as his method of execution and will become only the sixth U.S. prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977 — three in Utah, with the last one in the state carried out in 2010, and two in South Carolina this year.

The Utah Attorney General’s Office is expected to file a death warrant soon.

Menzies’ lawyers had argued their client's dementia was so severe that he could not understand why he was being put to death, adding that they plan to appeal Friday's ruling to the state Supreme Court.

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"Ralph Menzies is a severely brain-damaged, wheelchair-bound, 67-year-old man with dementia and significant memory problems," his attorney, Lindsey Layer, said in a statement. "It is deeply troubling that Utah plans to remove Mr. Menzies from his wheelchair and oxygen tank to strap him into an execution chair and shoot him to death."

The U.S. Supreme Court has previously spared death row inmates with dementia from execution, including an Alabama man in 2019 who was convicted of killing a police officer.

Since his sentencing 37 years ago, Menzies' attorneys have filed multiple appeals that delayed his death sentence, which had been scheduled at least twice before it was postponed.

Menzies had abducted Hunsaker in February 1986 from the convenience store where she worked, just three days after he was released on bail over an unrelated crime. Hunsaker was later found strangled with her throat cut at a picnic area in the Wasatch Mountains of northern Utah.

When he was later jailed on unrelated matters, Menzies had Hunsaker’s wallet and several other items that belonged to her. He was convicted of first-degree murder and other crimes.

Matt Hunsaker, who was 10 years old when his mother was killed, said Friday that his family is overwhelmed with emotion to know that justice will finally be served.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A federal judge granted final approval on Friday to the $2.8 billion settlement that will allow colleges and universities to begin paying athletes directly.

Judge Claudia Wilken approved the settlement on Friday that will allow schools to pay their athletes next month.

The sweeping terms of the so-called House settlement include approval for each school to share up to $20.5 million with athletes over the next year and $2.7 billion that will be paid over the next decade to thousands of former players who were barred from that revenue for years.

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Payouts will be determined based on the sport and the length of athletic career, with most football and men's basketball players able to receive nearly $135,000 each.

However, the highest estimated payout is expected to be nearly $2 million, thanks to "Lost NIL Opportunities," according to the law firm.

Nearly five years after Arizona State swimmer Grant House sued the NCAA and its five biggest conferences to lift restrictions on revenue sharing, Wilken approved the final proposal that had been hung up on roster limits, just one of many changes ahead amid concerns that thousands of walk-on athletes will lose their chance to play college sports.

The deal covers three antitrust cases — including the class-action lawsuit known as House vs. the NCAA — that challenged NCAA compensation rules dating back to 2016. The plaintiffs claimed that NCAA rules denied thousands of athletes the opportunity to earn millions of dollars off the use of their names, images and likenesses.

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The NCAA lifted its ban on athletes earning money through endorsement and sponsorship deals in 2021.

At one point, President Donald Trump was considering an executive order to regulate name, image and likeness in college sports after meeting with legendary Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban, the Wall Street Journal reported.

On Fox News last year, Saban urged Congress to step in and make NIL "equal across the board."

"And I think that should still exist for all players, but not just a pay-for-play system like we have now where whoever raises the most money in their collective can pay the most for the players, which is not a level playing field. I think in any competitive venue, you want to have some guidelines that gives everyone an equal opportunity to have a chance to be successful," he said.

The settlement also called for a clearinghouse to make sure any NIL deal worth more than $600 is pegged at fair market value in an attempt to thwart supposed pay-for-play deals.

Fox News' Ryan Gaydos and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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