Nevada plan to use untried execution drugs draws criticism
Prison officials in Nevada drew immediate criticism Friday for proposing an untried three-drug combination for the scheduled Nov. 14 lethal injection of a twice-convicted murderer who says he wants his execution sentence carried out.
The state has supplies of the sedative diazepam, the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl and the muscle paralytic cisatracurium it proposes to use to carry out the execution of 46-year-old Scott Raymond Dozier, Nevada Department of Corrections spokeswoman Brooke Keast said.
Prison administrators didn't immediately respond to questions including who will have the final say about what drugs are used, how the three medications were obtained, what order they would be administered and who will be in the Ely State Prison death chamber for Dozier's execution.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and an official at the Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic in California raised other questions, and said they fear Dozier will suffer and suffocate while he's conscious and paralyzed, but that observers won't be able to tell.
Read more: https://lasvegassun.com/news/2017/aug/19/nevada-plan-to-use-untried-execution-drugs-draws-c/