Hours before Nevada was set to carry out the country’s first lethal injection using the powerful opioid fentanyl, a judge on Wednesday halted the execution because of a challenge from a drug company that objects to the state’s plan to use one of its products as a sedative for the procedure.
Nevada’s plans to use fentanyl as part of its execution of Scott Dozier — a convicted murderer who has said he wants the lethal injection to proceed — made it the latest in a string of states that have turned to unprecedented drug combinations or uncommon execution methods as they try to carry out death sentences amid difficulties obtaining drugs.
While some other states have turned to comparatively unknown chemicals, Nevada’s plan stood out for relying on fentanyl, a synthetic painkiller that has helped fuel the country’s ongoing opioid epidemic. Depending on what happens in Dozier’s case, Nebraska ultimately could wind up carrying out the first fentanyl-assisted execution, something that state is seeking to do this summer.
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LAS VEGAS — A Nevada judge is halting the use of a drug in the execution of twice-convicted killer Scott Raymond Dozier hours before he was scheduled to die by a first-of-its-kind lethal injection mixture. Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez ordered the delay Wednesday morning in response to a challenge by New Jersey-based drugmaker Alvogen, which says it doesn’t want its product, midazolam, used in “botched” executions.
Alvogen’s objections were aired at a hearing that unfolded less than 11 hours before Dozier was to be put to death with a three-drug injection never before tried in the U.S.
The pharmaceutical company urged a judge to block the use of midazolam, saying the state of Nevada obtained the product through “subterfuge” for unapproved purposes. Dozier has insisted he wants to be executed and doesn’t care if it’s painful. The ruling effectively put the execution on hold.
Todd Bice, an attorney with Alvogen, accused the state of deceptively obtaining the company’s drug by having it shipped to a pharmacy in Las Vegas rather than the state prison in Ely. Alvogen sent a letter to state officials in April telling them it opposes the use of its products in executions, particularly the sedative midazolam, Bice said.
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Nevada’s execution of a man convicted of murder was halted on Wednesday, after the manufacturer of one of the drugs that was to be used in the lethal injection argued that the state had obtained its product illicitly.
A district court judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing Nevada officials from using the drug in the execution. It was the first time that a pharmaceutical manufacturer has been able to stop an execution — at least temporarily. It is likely to intensify the battle between officials in death-penalty states and drugmakers that object to their products being used to kill inmates.
Nevada had planned to use three drugs in the execution of Scott Dozier, who has been on death row since 2007: one as a sedative, one to paralyze him, and the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl to help kill him. The execution would have been the first to use fentanyl, which kills thousands of Americans every year and is at the forefront of the nation’s overdose crisis.
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Pharmaceutical firm Alvogen argued the state had illegitimately obtained one of its drugs and that the proposed drug combination was untested in executions.
Scott Raymond Dozier, a twice-convicted killer, has said he prefers to be executed rather than stay in prison.
On Wednesday morning, a judge sided with the company and ordered a delay.
Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez issued the ruling after Alvogen argued that the prison had tricked their distributor into selling the drug, despite the company’s known objection to selling it for executions.
The execution of 47-year-old Dozier had been scheduled for Wednesday night.
Officials had planned to use an untried three-drug lethal injection made up of the sedative midazolam, the synthetic opioid fentanyl and the muscle paralytic cisatracurium.
The drug cocktail is meant to slow breathing and eventually paralyse the prisoner’s muscles to stop their breathing.
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Pisanelli Bice Represents Las Vegas Artist Who Created Statue of Liberty Replica at New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Federal Court Case. Click here to view the video clip from Meet The Press.
