Nevada

History of the Death Penalty

Nevada was the first state in the United States to use the gas cham­ber, and exe­cut­ed 32 men with that method from 1924 – 1979. All exe­cu­tions in Nevada since 1979 have been car­ried out by lethal injection.

Timeline

1913 — Nevada invents an ​“auto­mat­ed fir­ing squad” com­prised of three rifles mount­ed on an iron frame that all fire simul­ta­ne­ous­ly. It is used once in the exe­cu­tion of Andriza Mircovich.

1924 — Gee Jon is the first per­son in the United States to be exe­cut­ed by lethal gas.

1973 — Nevada rein­state the death penal­ty fol­low­ing Furman v. Georgia.

2011 — Nevada Senate pass­es a bill that autho­rizes an audit of the cost of the state’s appli­ca­tion of the death penalty.

2016 — Nevada Department of Corrections sends 247 requests for pro­pos­als to phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal sup­pli­ers and receives no bids to sup­ply the state with lethal injection drugs.

2017 — A Nevada judge issues a stay of exe­cu­tion for Scott Dozier, putting off the coun­try’s first attempt­ed exe­cu­tion using an unprece­dent­ed lethal injec­tion pro­to­col fea­tur­ing the opi­oid pain med­ica­tion fen­tanyl and the par­a­lyt­ic drug cisatracurium.

2018 — In response to a law­suit filed by phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal man­u­fac­tur­er Alvogen, Inc., a Nevada District Judge stays the July 11 exe­cu­tion of Scott Dozier and pro­hibits Nevada from using drugs pro­duced by Alvogen to exe­cute Mr. Dozier.

2020 — Alvogen, Inc., Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA, and Sandoz Inc. reach a set­tle­ment with Nevada after state offi­cials return unused drugs obtained under false pretenses.

2021 — Nevada Press Association files a fed­er­al law­suit chal­leng­ing the lim­i­ta­tions that Nevada’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col and secre­cy laws place on the medi­a’s abil­i­ty to wit­ness and report on executions.

2021 — Nevada Supreme Court finds Samuel Howard inno­cent after 40 years on death row.

2022 — Nevada judge blocks request from out­go­ing Governor Sisolak for the Nevada Pardons Board to con­sid­er com­mut­ing all death sen­tences to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole.

Famous Cases

In 1924, the use of cyanide gas was intro­duced, as Nevada sought a more humane way of exe­cut­ing its inmates. Gee Jon was the first per­son in the United States exe­cut­ed by lethal gas. The state tried to pump cyanide gas into Jon’s cell while he slept, but this proved impos­si­ble, and the gas cham­ber was constructed.

In 2010, Ronnie Milligan was released from prison after 20 years on death row. Doubts con­cern­ing Milligan’s guilt were also raised after a let­ter writ­ten by an eye­wit­ness at his tri­al, Ramon Houston, was dis­cov­ered. In the let­ter, Houston indi­cat­ed that he killed the vic­tim. The let­ter also dis­closed that Milligan, who tes­ti­fied at his tri­al that he was in an alco­holic black­out at the time of the crime, was not even at the scene when the vic­tim was killed. Another co-defen­dant signed an affi­davit say­ing that Milligan was not present dur­ing the killing, and that every­body involved con­spired against him when they learned he had no mem­o­ry of that day. Expressing ​“grave reser­va­tions” about Milligan’s guilt, District Judge Richard Wagner sen­tenced Milligan to a term of life with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole and deter­mined that Milligan was imme­di­ate­ly eli­gi­ble for parole.

Notable Exonerations

Roberto Miranda spent 14 years on death row before his con­vic­tion was reversed. A wit­ness, Fernando Cabrera, claimed he drove with Miranda to Manuel Rodriguez Torres’ house and wait­ed out­side. Cabrera had motive to frame Miranda because Miranda was hav­ing an affair with his girl­friend. At tri­al, Miranda had been rep­re­sent­ed by an attor­ney with one year’s expe­ri­ence who had inher­it­ed the case when his col­league died. In over­turn­ing his con­vic­tion, Clark County Senior District Judge Norman Robison wrote: ​“The lack of pre­tri­al prepa­ra­tion by tri­al coun­sel … can­not be justified.”

Interesting Facts

In 1913, Nevada invent­ed an ​“auto­mat­ed fir­ing squad” com­prised of three rifles mount­ed on an iron frame that fired simul­ta­ne­ous­ly. It was used once, in the exe­cu­tion of Andriza Mircovich.

The last inmates at Nevada State Prison were removed in January, 2012, but the state’s exe­cu­tion cham­ber remains there.

Resources

• Department of Corrections
• Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty
• Advisory Council for Prosecuting Attorneys
• Public defend­er’s office
• Victims’ ser­vices

Nevada Execution Totals Since 1976