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.
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.”
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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.
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