The Columbus Dispatch

Nevada execution blocked after drug maker objects

- By Mark Berman

Hours before Nevada was set to carry out the country’s first lethal injection using the powerful opioid fentanyl, a judge on Wednesday halted the execution because of a challenge from a drug company that objects to the state’s plan to use one of its products as a sedative for the procedure.

Nevada’s plans to use fentanyl as part of its execution of Scott Dozier — a convicted murderer who has said he wants the lethal injection to proceed — made it the latest in a string of states that have turned to unpreceden­ted drug combinatio­ns or uncommon execution methods as they try to carry out death sentences amid difficulti­es obtaining drugs.

This plan stood out for relying on fentanyl, a synthetic painkiller that has helped fuel the country’s ongoing opioid epidemic. Depending on what happens in Dozier’s case, Nebraska ultimately could wind up carrying out the first fentanyl-assisted execution, something that state is seeking to do this summer.

Dozier, 47, was convicted of killing a man in a Las Vegas hotel, cutting him into pieces and stealing his money in 2002. Dozier also has been clear about his desire to have the execution carried out.

“Life in prison isn’t a life,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal this week. “This isn’t living, man. It’s just surviving. ... If people say they’re going to kill me, get to it.”

Though Dozier doesn’t oppose the execution, Nevada officials faced a late challenge from Alvogen, a pharmaceut­ical firm that said the state “illegitima­tely acquired” its drug, the sedative midazolam. Midazolam has become controvers­ial for its use in executions, and Alvogen highlighte­d some of those incidents in court, including the bungled 2014 Oklahoma execution that saw an inmate grimace and kick.

During a hearing Wednesday, Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez, who presides over the civil division of the district court in Clark County, barred the state from using its supply of midazolam in Dozier’s execution, according to a court spokeswoma­n. Gonzalez also set a status check in the case for September.

According to Nevada’s execution protocol, the state’s plan going into Wednesday was to inject Dozier with three drugs: midazolam to sedate him, fentanyl to cause him to lose consciousn­ess and then cisatracur­ium to paralyze his muscles. Medical experts warned that the final drug could make the procedure riskier, arguing that if either of the first two drugs is administer­ed improperly or does not work, Dozier might remain conscious while paralyzed, not able to breath.

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