Eight days before the sched­uled July 11, 2018 exe­cu­tion of Scott Dozier, the Nevada Department of Corrections issued a new lethal-injec­tion pro­to­col, switch­ing the drugs the state intends to use in car­ry­ing out his exe­cu­tion. On July 3, the Department announced that it plans to use an untest­ed three-drug pro­to­col of the seda­tive mida­zo­lam, the opi­oid fen­tanyl, and the par­a­lyt­ic cisatracuri­um. The last-minute change prompt­ed an emer­gency fil­ing by the ACLU of Nevada seek­ing addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion about the drugs the state will use. In November 2017, Nevada had announced a dif­fer­ent, but also untried exe­cu­tion method involv­ing diazepam (Valium), fen­tanyl cit­rate, and cisatracuri­um besy­late. A Nevada tri­al court declared that pro­to­col uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in November after con­sid­er­ing med­ical evi­dence that the par­a­lyt­ic drug, cisatracuri­um, could cause Dozier to expe­ri­ence ​“air hunger” and suf­fo­cate to death, while mask­ing signs that he was con­scious and suf­fer­ing dur­ing the exe­cu­tion. Nevada pros­e­cu­tors appealed, and the Nevada Supreme Court over­turned the rul­ing on pro­ce­dur­al grounds, allow­ing the exe­cu­tion to go for­ward. During the course of the state’s appeal, how­ev­er, its sup­ply of diazepam expired, leav­ing the Nevada with the choice of delay­ing the exe­cu­tion or chang­ing its pro­to­col. The ACLU was par­tic­u­lar­ly crit­i­cal of the protocol’s switch to mida­zo­lam, which has been involved in the botched exe­cu­tions of Dennis McGuire in Ohio, Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma, Joseph Wood in Arizona, and Ronald Smith in Alabama and in prob­lem­at­ic exe­cu­tions in Arkansas and Virginia. ​“I think the state of Nevada should think very care­ful­ly about whether it wants to use it, espe­cial­ly because of its very con­cern­ing his­to­ry and its asso­ci­a­tion with botched exe­cu­tions,” said Amy Rose, the legal direc­tor of the ACLU of Nevada. ​“I don’t think Nevada wants to be known for hav­ing a botched exe­cu­tion.” The par­a­lyt­ic, they argue, could poten­tial­ly mask seri­ous pain that pris­on­ers expe­ri­ence dur­ing exe­cu­tions. The law­suit seeks infor­ma­tion about the process used to arrive at the pro­to­col, the pur­chase orders for the drugs, and the use of a new exe­cu­tion cham­ber. Dozier has waived his appeals, allow­ing his exe­cu­tion to pro­ceed with­out com­plet­ing judi­cial review of the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. He would be the first per­son exe­cut­ed in Nevada since 2006, and his exe­cu­tion would be the first to take place in the new exe­cu­tion cham­ber that the state built in 2016 at tax­pay­er expense of $860,000. The state has exe­cut­ed twelve pris­on­ers since the 1970s, eleven of whom waived their appeals.

(David Montero, Nevada plans to exe­cute inmate next week using con­tro­ver­sial par­a­lyt­ic drug, Los Angeles Times, July 3, 2018; Ken Ritter, Nevada Switches Drug to Be Used in 1st Execution Since 2006, Associated Press, July 3, 2018; Michelle Rindels, Nevada announces plans to use con­tro­ver­sial seda­tive mida­zo­lam in exe­cu­tion next week, Nevada Independent, July 3, 2018; David Ferrara, DOC lays out pro­to­col for Nevada’s first exe­cu­tion in 12 years, Las Vegas Review-Journal, July 3, 2018.) Read Nevada’s new exe­cu­tion pro­to­col. See Lethal Injection.

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