LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Latest on plans for Nevada’s first execution in 12 years (all times local):
FILE – In this Aug. 17, 2017 file photo, Nevada death row inmate Scott Raymond Dozier confers with Lori Teicher, a federal public defender involved in his case, during an appearance in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas. A judge says the first execution in Nevada in 12 years can go forward next month, after the state Supreme Court rejected a challenge of a never-before-tried combination of drugs for the lethal injection. Dozier’s death warrant, signed Tuesday, June 19, 2018, in Las Vegas, sets an unspecified date the week of July 9 for his execution at the state prison in Ely. (AP Photo/Ken Ritter, File)
2:30 p.m.
An advocate says Nevada’s governor or prisons chief should stop the planned execution next month of a death-row inmate until questions about the process and a never-before-used, three-drug cocktail are answered.
American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada legal chief Amy Rose says the courts never decided whether Scott Raymond Dozier would experience pain or suffocate to death — or if the protocol developed for his lethal injection was constitutionally adequate.
Rose concedes her group doesn’t have legal standing to act on Dozier’s behalf unless he asks for it.
Dozier has said he wants to die and doesn’t really care if he experiences pain. But he did let a team of federal public defenders challenge the drugs and method that Nevada prison officials planned to use.
That challenge was rejected by the Nevada Supreme Court last month on procedural grounds.
Gov. Brian Sandoval said last year he only has authority under state law to stay an execution up to 60 days after a sentence is handed down. After that, it’s up to the state Pardons Board.
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12:50 p.m.
A prisons official says Nevada has a date and the drugs needed to carry out its first execution in 12 years.
State Department of Corrections spokeswoman Brooke Santina said Wednesday that the lethal injection of Scott Raymond Dozier is scheduled for July 11 at Ely (EE’-lee) State Prison.
Santina says officials plan to use a never-tried three-drug cocktail that was the subject of a court fight. She says the drugs haven’t expired despite some questions about whether they had.
The protocol includes an anti-anxiety drug, the powerful painkiller fentanyl and a paralyzing drug that attorneys who challenged the execution say could mask any signs of pain and suffering.
The state Supreme Court decided last month not to stop the execution on procedural grounds despite challenges by lawyers and a rights group.
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Noon
A judge has signed off on the first execution in Nevada in 12 years, despite lingering questions about a never-before-used drug protocol that’s faced a court fight.
Clark County District Judge Jennifer Togliatti signed Scott Raymond Dozier’s death warrant Tuesday, setting the execution for an unspecified date the week of July 9.
It follows a state Supreme Court ruling last month that defense lawyers and a rights group used the wrong process to try to stop the lethal injection.
The justices didn’t decide whether the state should use a never-tried three-drug cocktail that state officials drew up last year for Dozier’s execution.
The protocol includes fentanyl, a powerful painkiller fueling much of the nation’s opioid epidemic, and a paralyzing drug that attorneys challenging the execution say could mask any signs of pain and suffering.
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