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Nevada To Use Untested Drug Cocktail For First Execution In 12 Years

Nevada To Use Untested Drug Cocktail For First Execution In 12 Years

Scott Raymond Dozier is set to be executed using a controversial combination of valium, fentanyl and a muscle paralyser

Mike Wood

Mike Wood

The American state of Nevada is set to try an untested cocktail of drugs as part of its first execution in more than a decade.

Scott Raymond Dozier, a murderer who sawed his victim to pieces and stuffed the dismembered corpse into suitcases, had requested that he be put to death for his crimes after sitting on Death Row for more than a decade.

A Nevada judge ruled that Dozier could be injected with a combination of Diazepam (a sedative), synthetic opiate Fentanyl and cisatracurium (a paralysing drug).

Las Vegas District Court Judge Jennifer Togliatti signed the death warrant for Mr Dozier in the face of protests from lawyers and activists and the execution has now been scheduled for 11 July at Ely State Prison.

PA


Of late, the State of Nevada has been hamstrung in its attempts to carry out the death penalty by a lack of appropriate drugs to perform a lethal injection.

The trio of drugs that are set to be used have caused controversy. The use of cisatracurium in particular has been criticised, with anti-death penalty activists claiming that its use would be less humane than putting down an animal.

Cisatracurium is a powerful paralysing drug that some feel would mask any signs of pain in the victim, even if they were suffering.

Diazepam is better known as valium and is often taken to combat anxiety, while Fentanyl is well known as the source of countless opium-related deaths around the United States, where it is often confused for heroin, resulting in accidental overdoses.

Nevada has struggled to gain drugs to execute prisoners due to a mass decision by manufacturers not to sell the required drugs to state governments that would use them for executions.

The drugs that Nevada has are also feared to be expired, which could see the execution considered to be 'cruel and unusual punishment' and therefore illegal under the US constitution.


"The (state) Supreme Court never decided whether Mr. Dozier would experience extreme pain, or if he would suffocate to death, or if this protocol is constitutionally adequate," said Amy Rose, director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The ACLU, however, cannot act on Mr Dozier's behalf unless he asks them to, which he has not done. Mr Dozier has expressed a wish to die, even if it causes him pain.

Should the execution be carried out as planned, it would be the first in Nevada since 2006.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: execution, US News