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.
Click here to read the full article.
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.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) was ordered to pay a Las Vegas sculptor more than $3.5 million last week, after it inadvertently used an image of his Statue of Liberty replica on stamps.
Artist Robert Davidson sued the USPS for copyright infringement five years ago, arguing that “Forever” stamps issued in 2011 bore the likeness not of the original Lady Liberty, but of the recreation Davidson produced for the New York-New York Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
Court documents show that that the USPS did accidentally base the stamp design — which featured a close-up image of the statue’s face — off a photograph of Davidson’s statue. The USPS did not realize its mistake until informed by a stock photography company employee more than three months after the stamps were issued.
When Davidson eventually filed his lawsuit, the agency’s attorneys argued that the two statues were too similar for the sculptor to claim copyright.
Davidson, however, claimed that his statue’s face is “more modern, a little more contemporary face, definitely more feminine” than the original, according to the court documents. Davidson also said he specifically wanted to distinguish his work from the original in New York, to create something “more appropriate for Las Vegas.”
In the end, Federal Judge Eric Bruggink sided with Davidson, writing in his decision that, “A comparison of the two faces unmistakably shows that they are different.” Bruggink ordered the USPS to pay Davidson $3,554,946.95, plus interest.
“Robert Davidson is pleased that after a full trial, the Federal Court of Claims recognized the significance of his artistic work in creating the Las Vegas Lady Liberty statue and enforcing his copyright,” Davidson’s lawyer, Todd Bice, told MONEY in a statement. “As the court noted, Mr. Davidson’s artistic creation of the Las Vegas Lady Liberty is highly unique and attractive, which is what prompted the US Postal Service to select a photo of his work for the second ever Forever Stamp, over hundreds of other images.”
Click here to read the full article.
It’s a mistake that’s costing the U.S. Postal Service $3.5 million – the Statue of Liberty Forever stamps released in 2010 didn’t actually show New York’s Lady Liberty.
The photograph featured in the stamp design actually shows a Statue of Liberty replica outside the New York-New York casino hotel in Las Vegas. Stamps with the Las Vegas image were in circulation for at least three months before the Postal Service realized the mistake – 3 billion were printed. The Postal Service found the photograph on a stock image site and defended its decision to use it.
“We really like the image and are thrilled that people have noticed in a sense,” a USPS spokesman told CNN in 2011. “It’s something that people really like. If you ask people in Vegas, they’re saying, ‘Hey, That’s great. That’s wonderful.’ It’s certainly injected some excitement into our stamp program.”
Robert Davidson, the replica’s sculptor, didn’t share the sentiment. He sued the government for copyright infringement, and a judge ruled in his favor.
Click here to read the full article.
When the US Postal Service rolled out its Forever stamps in 2010 featuring a close-up of the Statue of Liberty, it wasn’t actually of the iconic symbol of freedom.
Instead, it was the face of the more diminutive replica that stands on the Las Vegas Strip and occasionally gets dolled up in sports jerseys to celebrate events in Sin City. As if the mix-up wasn’t embarrassing enough, it’s also going to cost the Postal Service.
On Friday, a federal judge ruled that the Postal Service should pay $3.5 million to Robert Davidson, the sculptor of the Las Vegas replica.
Davidson filed suit in 2013, saying that the Postal Service had infringed on his work, which was original and therefore protected. In his lawsuit, Davidson said his replica “brought a new face to the iconic statue – a face which audiences found appeared more ‘fresh-faced,’ ‘sultry’ and even ‘sexier’ than the original located in New York.”
The government argued that it owed Davidson nothing because the statue is a replica and doesn’t contain original work, which would make his copyright invalid. But the court disagreed, ruling that Davidson’s work is original in “making the statue his own creation, particularly the face.”
“A comparison of the two faces unmistakably shows that they are different,” Judge Eric Bruggink wrote.
In 2008, the Postal Service began the process of looking for new images for the Forever stamp. Its then-manager of stamp development had been looking for something “different and unique” in the Statue of Liberty image because it had already been used in at least 20 different stamps, according to his court testimony that’s summarized in the court’s opinion.
The decision came down to an image of the Las Vegas statue that had appeared on a photo service. The Postal Service purchased a license of that photograph. Several Postal Service officials testified that they wouldn’t have selected that image had they known that it wasn’t the real Statue of Liberty.
Then, the stamp bearing the face of the Las Vegas statue went on sale in December 2010, paired with a US flag Forever stamp.
Three months later, USPS learned about the mix-up. But by then, the face of the Las Vegas replica was on nearly 3 billion stamps that had already been printed. The Postal Service attempted to make the best of it in its public statements.
“We really like the image and are thrilled that people have noticed in a sense,” a USPS spokesman told CNN in 2011. “It’s something that people really like. If you ask people in Vegas, they’re saying, ‘Hey, That’s great. That’s wonderful.’ It’s certainly injected some excitement into our stamp program.”
Eventually, the Lady Liberty stamp was retired in 2014 after about 4.9 billion had been sold, which amounts to about $2.1 billion in sales.
The lawsuit hinged on whether Davidson’s statue, which stands in front of the New York-New York Hotel and Casino, could be considered an original work.
The sculptor said that his Lady Liberty was not a direct duplicate and that her face was “more modern” and “definitely more feminine.” Davidson also drew attention to differences in the eyes, eyelids and upper lip. He said he was influenced by a picture of his mother-in-law, which he used to form his final version of the statue, which was completed in 1996.
The question facing the the US Court of Federal Claims was whether the replica was “sufficiently original to be afforded copyright protection, whether the government’s use was infringing.”
Ultimately, the court sided with Davidson.
“The portion used was entirely of what we consider to have been the original work contributed by Mr. Davidson,” Bruggink wrote. “The government’s only real defense is that its use did not particularly harm plaintiff’s business as an industrial sculptor. That may be true, but we also note that it certainly did not benefit him. The Postal Service offered neither public attribution nor apology.”
Todd Bice, Davidson’s attorney, said in response to the ruling: “As the court noted, Mr. Davidson’s artistic creation of the Las Vegas Lady Liberty is highly unique and attractive which is what prompted the US Postal Service to select a photo of his work for the second ever Forever Stamp, over hundreds of other images.”
“For too long, the Postal Service has endeavored to ignore the rights of artists like Mr. Davidson, simply taking intellectual property with after-the-fact offers of nominal compensation,” he said in an email statement to CNN.
The Postal Service told CNN by email that it is “reviewing the decision and will comment if and when appropriate.”
