Execution of murder convict in US blocked by drug company
Washington DC, Jul 11 (efe-epa).- A court in the United States indefinitely suspended the execution of Scott Dozier scheduled for Wednesday in Nevada after Alvogen pharmaceutical company issued an appeal against its product being used as part of the lethal injection.
(FILE) An undated file photo from the year 2000 shows the death chamber inside the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, Texas. EPA-EFE/PAUL BUCK
Washington DC, Jul 11 (efe-epa).- A court in the United States indefinitely suspended the execution of Scott Dozier scheduled for Wednesday in Nevada after Alvogen pharmaceutical company issued an appeal against its product being used as part of the lethal injection.
Dozier, 47, convicted of two murders in 2001 and 2007, gave up his appeals and asked to be executed.
Nevada scheduled Dozier's execution for Wednesday, when a lethal injection would be carried out with a three-drug combination, one of which is a sedative produced by Alvogen, Midazolam.
The pharmaceutical company filed an appeal on Tuesday against the use of its products in the execution process, alleging that the drugs were illegitimately obtained after Alvogen refused to provide it for lethal injection.
According to Alvogen, the Nevada Department of Corrections ordered Midazolam through a pharmacy in Las Vegas to avoid the company's opposition.
Over the last decade, various American pharmaceutical companies have opposed the use of their products in lethal injections, causing a decrease in executions due to a lack of drug components.
This marks the second time that a pharmaceutical company has turned to the courts to block an execution. The first attempt in Arkansas, however, did not succeed.
Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez, who temporarily accepted Alvogen's appeal, scheduled a new hearing for September.
A jury sentenced Dozier to death in 2007 for murdering Jeremiah Miller at a Las Vegas motel. Dozier robbed Miller of $12,000, the money with which the victim, who was a methamphetamine maker, intended to spend on meth-making supplies.
Authorities later found Miller's dismembered torso in a suitcase left in an apartment complexŽs garbage. His arms, legs and head have never been recovered.
The convict had previously been sentenced to 22 years in prison in Arizona for a 2001 murder of a man. Dozier put the dead body in a plastic container and left it in a desert.
Since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, Nevada has executed 12 offenders.
The last execution took place in 2006.
