Dear Friends,

Please call the Governor today and join our protest on July 11. Read details below.

The State of Nevada plans to execute Scott Dozier at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, July 11, 2018, in Ely, Nevada. The Department of Corrections will kill Mr. Dozier with an experimental combination of three drugs that have never before been used in an execution. Mr. Dozier was originally scheduled for execution last November, but a District Court judge ruled that one of the drugs, a paralytic, was constitutionally questionable and could not be used as part of the lethal cocktail. The execution was stayed while the State appealed that decision to the Nevada Supreme Court. In May, the Supreme Court Justices overruled the lower court decision, saying that if Mr. Dozier wanted to die, then all three originally proposed drugs could be used to execute him.

Just this week, the Department of Corrections substituted a different drug for one of the drugs that have expired. The new drug is midazolam, a drug that has produced a number of seriously botched executions in other states, including Ohio, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Alabama. The other two drugs in the proposed cocktail are fentanyl and cisatracurium (a paralytic). The only reason the State of Nevada is able to pursue this execution using this experimental combination of drugs is because Mr. Dozier is a “volunteer” – someone who has given up his available appeals and thus is not contesting the drug protocol. In any other case, there would be significant litigation challenging the use of this combination of drugs, and the Department of Corrections would very likely not be able to proceed with it.

There is a very real danger of a botched execution (one in which the prisoner dies, but it involves disruptions in the process and unnecessary agony). Apart from the experimental cocktail itself, it is unclear how corrections staff will be trained and prepared for the first execution in 12 years using an entirely new drug combination, including the recently substituted midazolam. Lethal injections are highly precise procedures with little room for error.  If one step goes wrong – a variation in dosage, an unanticipated response – the whole process can easily go sideways. The possibility of a botched execution would be troubling for many of us, and it would be especially traumatizing for many corrections professionals, whether directly involved or not.

Please take two minutes to call the Governor’s office and implore him to halt this experimental execution. Governor Sandoval can prevent this execution by telling the Department of Corrections to refrain from using this untested and possibly unconstitutional drug combination on Mr. Dozier. Please call now:  (775) 684-5670.

This is not a request to end the death penalty in Nevada, or even to stop all future executions. It is simply a request to stop the State from conducting an execution using this experimental protocol.

Please also join our protest/vigil on Wednesday, July 11, in front of the Governor’s mansion in Carson City. We will gather there starting at 7 p.m. to share our grave concerns about this and all executions, to stand in vigil, and to bear witness to this outrageous human rights violation.

Thank you for raising your voice in opposition to this barbaric and outdated practice. I hope to see you outside the Governor’s mansion on Wednesday evening, July 11.

Nancy Hart
President