Nevada

A Nevada judge has blocked a request from out­go­ing Governor Steve Sisolak (pic­tured) that the Nevada Pardons Board con­sid­er com­mut­ing all death sen­tences to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. Gov. Sisolak pro­posed on December 14, 2022 that the board dis­cuss the com­mu­ta­tion of the state’s 57 death sen­tences at its December 20 meet­ing. Just one day before that meet­ing was set to take place, Carson City District Court Judge James Wilson Jr. blocked the dis­cus­sion and ruled that the pro­pos­al vio­lat­ed a state law requir­ing advance notice to victims’…

In a year that fea­tured mas­sive cam­paign adver­tis­ing attempt­ing to por­tray legal reform­ers as respon­si­ble for increas­es in vio­lent crime, can­di­dates com­mit­ted to crim­i­nal legal reform or who promised to con­tin­ue statewide mora­to­ria on exe­cu­tions post­ed key elec­tion wins in the 2022 midterm elec­tions. Defying a pre-elec­tion nar­ra­tive fore­cast­ing a back­lash against pro­gres­sive pros­e­cu­tors and con­ven­tion­al wis­dom that fear of crime dri­ves polit­i­cal out­comes, reform pros­e­cu­tors were re-elect­ed to office and gained new footholds in coun­ties across the country.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed a Nevada dis­trict court’s grant of a new tri­al to death-row pris­on­er Mark Rogers, blast­ing the state for pro­vid­ing him with inex­pe­ri­enced coun­sel who lacked the knowl­edge and resources to com­pe­tent­ly defend a cap­i­tal tri­al. In a 2 – 1 deci­sion issued on February 14, 2022, the appeals pan­el upheld a September 23, 2019 rul­ing by District Court Judge Gloria M. Navarro hold­ing that the pub­lic defend­er assigned to rep­re­sent Rogers pro­vid­ed inef­fec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion while attempt­ing to present an insan­i­ty defense…

Nevada pros­e­cu­tors have failed to meet a dead­line to obtain a death war­rant to exe­cute Zane Floyd before its sup­ply of a key lethal-injec­tion drug expires, indef­i­nite­ly extend­ing the near 16-year pause between exe­cu­tions in the state.

At least three Nevada exe­cu­tion per­son­nel backed out of par­tic­i­pat­ing in Zane Floyd​’s (pic­tured, right) exe­cu­tion after a U.S. dis­trict judge asked about their edu­ca­tion and train­ing. The per­son­nel, includ­ing a doc­tor and two emer­gency med­ical tech­ni­cians, declined to par­tic­i­pate after U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware II asked the state to pro­vide him with their cre­den­tial infor­ma­tion. Another doc­tor was exclud­ed by the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) after the agency learned of ​“addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion,” accord­ing to NDOC’s deputy direc­tor of oper­a­tions William Gittere. ​“NDOC no longer has an attending…

Likely vot­ers in Clark County, Nevada over­whelm­ing­ly oppose the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment against broad cat­e­gories of vul­ner­a­ble and impaired per­sons whom coun­ty pros­e­cu­tors have been try­ing to exe­cute, a new poll released by Vegas Watch on January 27, 2022 shows.

Nevada pros­e­cu­tors have asked a fed­er­al judge to expe­dite a deci­sion on the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s exe­cu­tion process, say­ing accel­er­at­ed review is nec­es­sary if the state is to exe­cute Zane Floyd before its sup­ply of a ques­tion­ably obtained lethal-injec­tion drug expires on February 28, 2022.

The Nevada Supreme Court has found that a pris­on­er who has been on the state’s death row for more than forty years is ​“actu­al­ly inno­cent” of the death penal­ty and must be resentenced.

NEWS (9/​16/​21) – Nevada: The Supreme Court of Nevada has over­turned Samuel Howard’s death sen­tence, find­ing him ​“actu­al­ly inno­cent” of the death penal­ty. Reversing the tri­al court’s dis­missal of Howard’s post­con­vic­tion chal­lenge to his death sen­tence, the appeals court ruled that a recent deci­sion by New York state courts that over­turned a con­vic­tion pros­e­cu­tors relied upon as an aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stance in Howard’s case inval­i­dat­ed that aggra­vat­ing circumstance.

A Nevada death-row pris­on­er has asked for a clemen­cy hear­ing to present new evi­dence of sig­nif­i­cant brain dam­age and post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der caused by mil­i­tary ser­vice and child­hood trauma.