SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court has signaled interest in a legal challenge filed by a group of death row inmates against the state's capital punishment laws.
The state's top court has asked lawyers for the state and the inmates for briefing in an appeal of a lower court's decision to reject the lawsuit. Ralph Leroy Menzies, Douglas Stewart Carter, Troy Kell, Michael Anthony Archuleta and Taberon Honie sued over Utah's death penalty methods and laws, arguing that lethal injection and firing squad violate their rights.
Honie was executed by lethal injection earlier this year after his appeals were exhausted. Menzies is currently fighting a death warrant. His lawyers are arguing that he has dementia and to execute him now would be unconstitutional.
