Nevada announces plans to use controversial sedative midazolam in execution next week
Nevada plans to execute death row inmate Scott Dozier next week using the powerful painkiller fentanyl as well the sedative midazolam — a drug that critics have blamed for executions in other states in which prisoners were seen struggling for breath before they died.
The Nevada Department of Corrections offered up formal notice on Tuesday that it would be putting Dozier to death next Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Ely State Prison. They also released the new lethal injection drug protocol, which comes as the state’s supply of a drug formerly in the combination — diazepam — expired.
Attorneys for Dozier didn’t immediately return requests for comment on Tuesday about whether they would take any steps to challenge the protocol, or whether Dozier approves of the method. Convicted of two killings in the early 2000s, the 47-year-old Dozier has previously asked to be executed and voluntarily gave up his appeals.
But the ACLU of Nevada, which has been critical of the agency on transparency grounds, said the state should count the costs of using the drug even if its inclusion passes legal muster.
Read more: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/aclu-sues-nevada-prison-agency-for-failing-to-release-detailed-plan-for-next-weeks-execution