Nevada postpones execution using opioid fentanyl
LOS ANGELES: The American state of Nevada postponed the execution of a murderer by lethal injection with the controversial opioid fentanyl on Wednesday, hours before he was due to die.
The execution of Scott Dozier at Ely State Prison, near the border with Utah, would have been the first time the potent drug driving the opioid crisis was used for lethal injection.
But the execution was stopped over plans to use another substance, the sedative midazolam, in the three-drug cocktail after its manufacturer, Alvogen, sued the Nevada State Department of Corrections. Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez banned the use of the drug on Wednesday, effectively staying the execution for at least two months.
“The plaintiff has a reasonable probability that it will suffer damages to its business reputation which will impact investor relations and customer relations,” Gonzalez said in her ruling, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Alvogen and the state are scheduled to return to court on Sept 10 for another hearing on the case.
The firm “does not condone the use of any of its drug products, including midazolam, for use in state-sponsored executions” and doesn’t sell directly to the prison system, it said.
Dozier, who has abandoned the appeals process and repeatedly stated his desire to be executed, was convicted of the 2002 murder of Jeremiah Miller, whose torso was found in a suitcase in Las Vegas.
Nevada’s plan to use fentanyl, which killed more than 20,000 people in the US in 2016, has drawn criticism from medics and activists who call the move a dangerous human experiment.
The drug, which acts as an anaesthetic, is 50 times more powerful than heroin and up to 100 times stronger than morphine.