Scott Dozier case: Hours before execution, judge in pharma company suit halts use of drug

CBS ^ | July 11, 2018

[SMGFan]

LAS VEGAS -- A Nevada judge is halting the use of a drug in the execution of twice-convicted killer Scott Raymond Dozier hours before he was scheduled to die by a first-of-its-kind lethal injection mixture. Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez ordered the delay Wednesday morning in response to a challenge by New Jersey-based drugmaker Alvogen, which says it doesn't want its product, midazolam, used in "botched" executions.

Alvogen's objections were aired at a hearing that unfolded less than 11 hours before Dozier was to be put to death with a three-drug injection never before tried in the U.S.

The pharmaceutical company urged a judge to block the use of midazolam, saying the state of Nevada obtained the product through "subterfuge" for unapproved purposes. Dozier has insisted he wants to be executed and doesn't care if it's painful. The ruling effectively put the execution on hold.

[SMGFan]

Then lead him out in the desert sun until he dies.

[beergarden]

Drugs are baaad. Let’s go back to basics here for this piece of garbage: bullet in the head. Double tap just for good measure.

[Skywise]

So you have to bake gay wedding cakes... but you can dictate how your drug is used - even for lawful purposes.

[Little Ray]

Then smother him with nitrogen.

[Dr. Sivana]

Let me guess, not enough human trials to test effectiveness?

[Hugin]

I always wondered why they didn’t just use an overdose of morphine. But fentanyl works even better.

[SkyDancer]

His killing of his victims wasn’t botched, have to protect the feelings of the victim being executed and all.

[taxcontrol]

Nitrogen Asphyxiation

[Red Badger]

How can a company dictate what you can or cannot do with its product?.....................

[RatRipper]

The only good use of abortion: abort his brain

[Sergio]

Hey...animal rights activists, we can all agree, are pretty nutso when it comes to preventing harm and pain to come to any animal. Yet they have nothing negative to say about the drugs used to put down dogs.

This leads me to believe that the drugs used to put down our pets is humane and pain free. If it weren’t, I’m pretty sure the animal rights folks would have spoken up by now.

So...inject this murderer with what is used to put down Fido.

[Wonder Warthog]

1. One tank, compressed nitrogen with regulator
2. One plastic bag
3. One length hose to connect 1) and 2).

Instructions—connect hose to bag. Place bag over perps’ head. Open valve on regulator. Wait for half an hour. Check for pulse and/or brainwaves.

[Vigilanteman]

Old Indian trick is to put him in a wet leather sack when you do that.

[libertylover]

Alvogen, which says it doesn't want its product, midazolam, used in "botched" executions.

Sorry Alvogen, if you sold it to the State of Nevada, it doesn't belong to you any more.

[Repealthe17thAmendment]

Ever since the states went to this more "humane" way of killing people, they've had problems with the drugs.

Go back to bullets. It's fast, easy, reliable, and the bullet manufacturers don't mind.

[ColdOne]

Dozier was sentenced to death in 2007 for robbing, killing and dismembering 22-year-old Jeremiah Miller at a Las Vegas motel in 2002. Miller had come to Nevada to buy ingredients to make meth. His decapitated torso was found in a suitcase. In 2005, Dozier was sentenced to 22 years in prison for shooting to death another drug-trade associate, 26-year-old Jasen Greene, whose body was found in 2002 in a shallow grave outside Phoenix. A witness testified Dozier used a sledgehammer to break Greene's limbs so the corpse would fit in a plastic storage container. ......Let Dozier live with this judge in his home 24/7.

[FoxInSocks]

Meanwhile, doctors and paramedics use midazolam every day for procedural sedation and stopping seizures.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Or let’s go back to a firing squad.

[Army Air Corps]

A large Trebuchet and a field of spikes.

[MplsSteve]

For those interested, I copies a pasted part of an article from Wikipedia regarding the use of Midazolam in executions. A bit of a long read but kinda interesting...

The drug has been introduced for use in executions by lethal injection in certain jurisdictions in the United States in combination with other drugs. It was introduced to replace pentobarbital after the latter’s manufacturer disallowed that drug’s use for executions.[75]

Midazolam has been used as part of a three-drug cocktail, with vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride in Florida and Oklahoma prisons.[76] Midazolam has also been used along with hydromorphone in a two-drug protocol in Ohio and Arizona.[76] Ohio used midazolam in the execution of Dennis McGuire in January 2014; it took McGuire 24 minutes to die after the procedure started, and he gasped and appeared to be choking during that time, leading to questions about the dosing and timing of the drug administration, as well as the choice of drugs.[77]

In October 2016, the U.S. state of Ohio announced that it would resume executions in January 2017, using the midazolam-vecuronium bromide-potassium chloride cocktail, but this was blocked by a Federal judge.[78][79] On 25 July 2017, Ronald Phillips was executed with a three-drug cocktail including midazolam after the Supreme Court refused to grant a stay.[80] Prior to this, the last execution in Ohio had been that of Dennis McGuire.[81] Murderer Gary Otte’s lawyers unsuccessfully challenged his Ohio execution, arguing that midazolam might not protect him from serious pain when the other drugs are administered. He died without incident in about 14 minutes on September 13, 2017.[82]

Midazolam acts as a sedative to render the condemned prisoner unconscious, at which time the vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride are administered, stopping the prisoner’s breathing and heart, respectively. Florida used midazolam to execute William Happ in October 2013.[83] The usage of midazolam in executions has become controversial after condemned inmate Clayton Lockett apparently regained consciousness and started speaking midway through his execution when the state of Oklahoma attempted to execute him with an untested three-drug lethal injection cocktail using 100 mg of midazolam. Prison officials reportedly discussed taking him to a hospital before he was pronounced dead of a heart attack 40 minutes after the execution began. An observing doctor stated that Lockett’s vein had ruptured. It is not clear which drug or drugs caused his death or what quantities of vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride were released before the execution was cancelled.[84][85]

In Glossip v. Gross, attorneys for three Oklahoma inmates argued that midazolam could not achieve the level of unconsciousness required for surgery, meaning severe pain and suffering was likely. They argued that midazolam was cruel and unusual punishment and thus contrary to the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In June 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled they failed to prove that midazolam was cruel and unusual when compared to known, available alternatives.[86]

The execution of Ronald Bert Smith in Alabama on December 8, 2016 “went awry soon after (midazolam) was administered”[87] again putting the effectiveness of the drug in question.[75]

On April 24, 2017, Arkansas carried out a double-execution of Jack Jones, 52, and Marcel Williams, 46. The state of Arkansas attempted to execute eight people before its supply of midazolam expired on April 30, 2017. Two of them were granted a stay of execution, and another, Ledell T. Lee, 51, was executed on April 20, 2017.[