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A Nevada judge effectively suspended the execution of a killer on two occasions Wednesday after a pharmaceutical company objected to the use of one of his drugs to put someone to death.
Elizabeth Gonzalez, Clark District Judge, Bans Use Scott Raymond Dozier, 47, was to be executed with an injection of three chemicals never tried in the United States
The spokesman for Nevada jails, Brooke Santina, did not make any immediate comment. State officials could appeal immediately to the Nevada Supreme Court.
Alvogen, of New Jersey, had urged the judge to block the use of his sedative midazolam, claiming that the state was illegally protecting the product with subterfuges. . The pharmaceutical company also raised fears that the drug could lead to botched execution, citing cases that have apparently turned around elsewhere in the country.
Todd Bice, an Alvogen attorney, accused the state of fraudulently obtaining the drug at a Las Vegas pharmacy rather than at the State Prison of Al ogen [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[39;ElyHesaidthatAlvogenhadsentalettertostateofficialsinApriltellingthemheobjectedtotheuseofhisproductsinexecutionsparticularlymidazolam
The judge ruled that based on this letter, Alvogen had a reasonable probability of winning her case, and she issued a temporary injunction against the use of the drug. Gonzalez has set another hearing for September 10.
Alvogen said in a statement that he was satisfied with the decision and would continue to work through the legal system to ensure that his products are not used in executions. Sandoz, also raised objections to Wednesday's hearing on the use of one of his drugs – the muscle paralyzing substance cisatracurium – in Dozier's execution. But the company did not immediately ask to formally join the Alvogen trial.
A third company, Pfizer, asked Nevada last year to make the third drug to be used in the run, the powerful opioid fentanyl. But the state refused. Fentanyl, which has been blamed for murderous overdoses across the country, has not been used before during an execution.
Jordan T. Smith, an assistant to the Solicitor General of Nevada, retorted Wednesday that Nevada had not put up a "smoke screen". "or do something wrong to get the drugs." He said that drugs ordered by the state prison system are regularly shipped to Las Vegas.
"All this action is just a damage control PR ", said Smith about Alvogen
Pharmaceutical companies have resisted drug use .10 years, citing legal and ethical concerns.But the legal challenge filed by Alvogen is only the second of its kind in the United States, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.The previous challenge, brought last year by another company in Arkansas, has finally failed to stop the company.
The midazolam of Alvogen was substituted in May for the expired Nevada diazepam stock, commonly known as Valium, which is intended to render the inmate unconscious. Nevada's enforcement protocol, the inmate then receives fentanyl and then cisatracurium, one to slow his breathing, the other to stop it.
Bice says that Alvogen does not take a stand on the death penalty but opposes the use of In court documents, Alvogen also cited examples from Alabama, from Arizona and Oklahoma in recent years, during which inmates who received midazolam have been left to fend for themselves. panting or sniffing, seemed to regain consciousness or take an unusually long time to die.
It is the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada that sued and forced the state to disclose details about where it got run drugs
Dozier, who attempted suicide in the past, said he preferred running to life behind bars.
"Life in prison is not a life," says the veteran of the military and the user of methamphetamine. Ier recently reported to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. At hearings and letters, he said that there was a limit to the amount of works of art and exercise that a person can do in jail.
Dozier was sentenced to death in 2007 for stealing, killing and dismembering Jeremiah Miller at the age of 22. The Las Vegas motel in 2002. Miller had come to Nevada to buy ingredients to make methamphetamine. His decapitated chest was found in a suitcase.
In 2005, Dozier was sentenced to 22 years in prison for shooting another drug dealer whose body was found in 2002 in a shallow pit outside of Phoenix. One witness testified that Dozier used a mass to break the victim's limbs so that the body would enter a plastic container.
Although Dozier tried to save his life, he allowed federal public defenders to challenge the protocol of execution. They argued that the combination of three untested drugs would be less humane than killing a pet.
The last execution of Nevada dates back to 2006.
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Associate press editors Lindsay Whitehurst and Julian Hattem in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.
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