The State of Nevada has scheduled the execution of Scott Dozier for July 11, 2018. The execution method will be lethal injection. It is the state’s first execution in 12 years.
On Tuesday, the Nevada Department of Corrections announced that the Dozier Execution will involve the use of the following three drugs:
There are many reasons to be concerned about this particular execution cocktail. Among them:
- Cisatracuriam was enough of a concern that Nevada’s Eighth Judicial District Court blocked Mr. Dozier’s execution last fall because of this drug. (Read the Nevada Supreme Court’s overturning of that decision in its May 2018 Order, which allows the execution to proceed.)
- Midazolam has been approved for use in executions by the Supreme Court of the United States (see Glossip v. Gross). However, that does not mean it is not worrisome: it took two hours for Joseph Wood to die during his execution by the State of Arizona. (Read the eyewitness account by reporter Michael Kiefer here.) Arizona refuses to use midazolam in any future executions.
- Fentanyl has never been used in an execution.
For more, read “Nevada execution plan sedative blamed for troubles elsewhere,” written by Ken Ritter for the Associated Press and published in the Miami Herald on July 5, 2018.
Our past discussions regarding lethal injection drugs include: