Nevada death row inmate found dead in apparent suicide: NPR

A Nevada death row inmate who repeatedly called for his own execution was found dead in his cell in an apparent suicide, according to the state corrections department.

Scott Dozier twice escaped death by lethal injection against his will but, on Saturday afternoon, he was found hanging from an air vent of his cell at the State Prison. Ely using a bed sheet, Brooke Santina, spokeswoman for the department, told NPR.

"He gave no hint of suicide leading to his death," said Santina, adding that Dozier was lonely at the time.

If he had expressed his desire to commit suicide, the state would have no choice but to put him under surveillance, but he said nothing.

The Marshall Project reported that, even last December, lawyers for his 48-year-old son had filed court documents arguing that Dozier's mental health was deteriorating due to the conditions of his incarceration.

"In recent months, Dozier has been regularly warned of suicide and his family said he had been deprived of his belongings and outside contacts," the criminal newspaper said.

Dozier was sentenced to death for eleven years for killing Jeremiah Miller, a Dozier methamphetamine associate whom he had beheaded and stunned the body in 2002. He had also been found guilty of murdering Jasen Green, whose remains were found buried in the Arizona desert in 2001.

In October 2016, he gave up the pursuit calls. He became what was called a "volunteer" for the execution. State to end his life.

In an interview granted to Las Vegas Review-Journal Dozier explained: "Life in prison is not a life … It's not living, man C & C Is simply survive. "

"If people say that they will kill me, go for it," he urged.

Dozier's death wish has pushed Nevada into a new kind of legal battle in the debate over the punishment of death. He forced the state to buy a new lethal cocktail, as it became harder and harder to get the drugs that Nevada had previously relied on. He has come up with an innovative combination of midazolam, cisatracurium and, for the first time, fentanyl.

But in July, Alvogen, a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company, thwarted Dozier's execution after filing a lawsuit against the corrections department. He argued that officials had illegally obtained midazolam, a sedative part of the three-drug cocktail that Nevada was planning to use to execute Dozier. The drug has been associated with botched executions in Arizona, Ohio, Oklahoma and Alabama.

Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez, of Clark District, ruled in favor of the company and banned the use of the drug, suspending indefinitely the execution.

Prior to this decision, Judge Jennifer Togliatti deferred the execution of Dozier in November 2017, after banning cisatracurium – a crippling drug – among another proposed deadly drug cocktail.

Although the Nevada Supreme Court overturned this decision, Togliatti agreed with an anesthetist "that the paralytic drug could mask the signs of the other two drugs – sedative diazepam and opioid analgesic fentanyl – failed" Las Vegas Sun reported.

Clark Patrick, former Dozier's attorney, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he was surprised to learn that Dozier had apparently been suicidal . Patrick's wife had recently planned to travel to Dozier on January 14th.

"He stated that he was looking forward to our visit," Patrick told the newspaper.