87°F
weather icon Partly Cloudy

15 states join Nevada in push to proceed with execution

Attorneys general from 15 other states want Nevada’s lethal injection of a condemned murderer to go forward.

Supporting opposition to a drug company’s lawsuit that halted the execution of two-time convicted murderer Scott Dozier last month, the states filed an amici curiae, or “friends of the court,” brief recently with the Nevada Supreme Court.

The 17-page filing references similar Arkansas litigation to stop execution drugs from being used there in 2017.

In Nevada, Alvogen Inc. has argued that it would suffer irreparable harm if its drug, the sedative midazolam, were used in a lethal injection.

The case caused the postponement of Dozier’s execution on July 11.

“These lawsuits are nothing more than a procedural end-run around state laws designed to protect the execution process,” according to the new court brief, which called the Nevada and Arkansas suits the “latest front in the guerrilla warfare being waged by anti-death-penalty activists and criminal defense attorneys to stop lawful executions.”

For nearly two years, Dozier has said he wants to waive his appeals and have his execution carried out, explaining that he would rather die than live on death row.

Dozier was sentenced to die in 2007 after first-degree murder and robbery convictions in the slaying of Jeremiah Miller.

The victim’s torso was found April 25, 2002, in a suitcase that had been dumped in a trash bin at a Las Vegas apartment complex.

Two weeks ago, the Nevada prison system asked the state’s high court to throw out a decision that stopped the lethal injection hours before Dozier was scheduled to die in Ely State Prison with a drug cocktail that also included the pain reliever fentanyl and a paralytic, cisatracurium, which had never been used in capital punishment.

It would have been the first execution in Nevada since 2006.

Within hours of District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez’s ruling last month, District Judge Jennifer Togliatti, who oversaw Dozier’s trial, issued a stay of execution.

Dozier had a murder conviction in the Arizona slaying of Jasen “Griffin” Greene and was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2005, before he was brought to Nevada to face charges in Miller’s death.

Alvogen’s lawsuit accused the state Corrections Department of surreptitiously obtaining its drug for use in the execution.

Company lawyers, in Clark County District Court recently, declined to speak with reporters about the case.

Lawyers for the Nevada attorney general’s office, representing the Corrections Department, have called the issue a matter of “nationwide public importance” that has never been considered in the state.

The other states — Arkansas, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah — questioned whether Alvogen, or any other drugmaker, would suffer damage from public knowledge of its product’s use in an execution.

“Of course, there is no reason to think a pharmaceutical supplier’s reputation would suffer any harm from executions being carried out using drugs it supplied,” their brief stated, “especially when it claimed to have supplied those drugs unwittingly and vociferously objected to their use.”

The filing refers to Alvogen’s suit as “abusive litigation” and argues that states have pushed to ensure that executions are performed without outside influence to stop them.

See more on pvtimes.com

Drug companies in Arkansas and Nevada “do not even need to succeed on the merits in order to achieve the desired outcome and prevent an execution,” the filing stated. “Instead, they merely have to result in an injunction preventing a state from carrying out an execution on the scheduled date. And that alone might delay an execution long enough that a state’s drugs could expire.”

MOST READ
THE LATEST
Get ready for the USO Benefit Show — how to get tickets

The Nevada Silver Tappers will hold two fundraisers this year as they pay tribute to some of the best of Hollywood musicals. Here’s How to get tickets.

Rotary to commemorate 9/11 anniversary

Wednesday, Sept. 11 will mark the 23rd anniversary of one of the most horrifying, yet unifying, days in U.S. history – the 9/11 terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people, including hundreds of emergency responders who rushed to save their fellow citizens.

Replace the Calvada fountain? Why the water board thinks we should

Nye County District Attorney Brian Kunzi recently made a suggestion that caught the attention of the Nye County Water District Governing Board. He proposed the county consider replacing one of the most notable landmarks in the Pahrump Valley: the fountain at Calvada Boulevard and Highway 160. The fountain has been at the prominent intersection for decades. Many find beauty and meaning in the site, with the fountain symbolizing the Paiute origins of the word Pahrump — Water Rock.

Conservation district seeks recruits — how to get involved

If readers would like something community and conservation-oriented to dedicate themselves to, the Southern Nye County Conservation District (SNCCD) could be a perfect fit.

Driver in jack-knife crash charged with DUI

The driver of a pickup truck is facing a DUI charge after he was found sleeping inside his jack-knifed truck after a crash, according to the Nye County Sheriff’s Office.

NCSO report details fight between inmate, deputy

A Nye County Detention Center inmate allegedly verbally and physically assaulted a deputy and medical staff employee late last month.

Solar project in Pahrump gets $80M federal boost

The funding is a part of a larger clean energy initiative that represents the country’s largest rural energy investment since 1936.