Scott Raymond Dozier Execution: Death Row Inmate Loses Battle Over Expired Lethal Injection Drugs

Scott Raymond Dozier has a date with an executioner. Sitting on death row in Nevada, Dozier will take his last breath on July 11.

As reported by Fox News, the Silver State will carry out its first execution in 12 years when the Department of Corrections puts Dozier to death next month. For this execution, Nevada will be using a three-drug combination that has never been tried before.

Dozier almost escaped his death sentence. Late last year, Clark County District Court Judge Jennifer Togliatti refused to allow the execution because the drug combination could have been considered cruel and unusual punishment. Critics feared the mixture would not show if the condemned convict was suffering during the procedure.

Nevada continued its fight to move forward with Dozier’s execution in the higher courts. Last month, Nevada ultimately won when the state’s Supreme Court ruled the execution could be carried out. Attorneys and a human rights group arguing for a stay of execution said the new procedure was inhumane as the drugs were possibly expired.

Despite her earlier refusal, an order of execution was signed by Judge Togliatti in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Prison officials have confirmed the drugs needed are on hand and ready for Dozier’s lethal injection.

“We have what we need to complete the execution order,” said Brooke Santina, with Nevada’s Department of Corrections. “The same three drugs. We have some that are not expired.”

The three drugs – diazepam, fentanyl, and cisatracurium – have never been used for an execution in any state. Nevada was forced to change the previous lethal injection concoction as many pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell certain drugs for use in executions.

Without any other legal delays, Dozier will be the first person executed in Nevada since 2006. Officials at Ely State Prison, which just built a new execution chamber two years ago, will complete the death row inmate’s capital punishment.

Scott Dozier received the death penalty after convictions for two separate murders, one in Phoenix and one in Las Vegas. Dozier is welcoming his early demise, stating on several occasions that he wants to be executed and isn’t concerned about pain or the drugs used.

According to a report from the Houston Chronicle, the American Civil Liberties Union is asking Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval to stop the execution. However, Mary-Sarah Kinner, a spokesperson for Sandoval’s office, said the governor lacks the “unilateral authority to offer a pardon or commute a death sentence.”