Scott Raymond Dozier is slated to die by Lethal Injection in Nevada on November 14. The 46-year-old condemned killer was sentenced to death after a jury convicted him of murdering Jeremiah Miller, 22, in 2002. Dozier’s defense attorneys, however, are arguing for the state to eliminate the drug that will paralyze the murderer during delivery of the lethal injection protocol. Another court hearing is scheduled today.
At 2:30 PM, Judge Jennifer Togliatti is prepared to hear testimony from a “medical expert” for Dozier’s defense team, according to NBC 3 (Las Vegas).
Dozier’s lawyers want the paralytic drug - one of the components of the state’s three-drug death cocktail - removed from the Capital Punishment protocol. The attorneys liken paralyzing Dozier to “suffocating him to death.” Their position is that the paralytic is “inhumane.”
Convicted killer dismembered victims, tossed one in dumpster
In 2002, Dozier murdered and dismembered Miller. The victim’s torso was discovered inside a suitcase that was thrown like trash into a dumpster in Las Vegas.
Another victim was also murdered by Dozier, dismembered, and discovered buried in the Arizona desert. Dozier was convicted of second-degree murder for that homicide.
Law requires lethal injection, but death cocktail drugs hard to obtain
Nevada law mandates that all capital punishments be exacted by lethal injection. The problem, however, is that states are unable to attain the “traditional drugs” needed to carry out the death sentences, KTVN reported. After the state’ Department of Corrections (DOC) consulted with Nevada’s Chief Medical Officer, as the law also requires, the DOC determined to impose the death penalty with Diazepam, Fentanyl, and Cisatracurium.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), however, objects, calling the injection protocol “experimental.” The organization’s policy director of Nevada, Holly Welborn, claims the state is treating Dozier as a “guinea pig,” since he voluntarily waived his appeals and asked Nevada to execute him. Welborn said that allowing Dozier to be executed by a previously untested drug cocktail “implicates everyone on death row,” KTVN relayed.
ACLU claims murderer’s execution may allow more executions
An effect of Dozier waiving appeals is that Nevada is required to impose his sentence – executing him. Welborn stated that carrying out the killer’s execution may set a precedent, which will allow the state to commence the executions of additional death row inmates. She stated that a lot of unanswered questions remain. The ACLU is concerned about Dozier having a humane death.
Additionally, the ACLU is questioning the state’s DOC about its execution team’s “preparedness,” KTVN noted. Nevada’s DOC is confident that prison personnel is well-trained for carrying through and imposing the sentence Dozier received: death by lethal injection.
District Attorney says death is ‘the right answer’ for killer’s crimes
Christopher J. Hicks is District Attorney, Washoe County. He emphasized that the death penalty is reserved for the “worst of the worst.” KTVN reported that Hicks further stated that when people act viciously, violently, and horribly, the capital punishment is “the right answer.”
Hicks also stated that voters have also expressed that the death sentence is the answer when murderers act in the ways that he had described and “that’s why Nevada still supports the death penalty.”
Condemned murderer ‘reiterated’ desire to die by execution
Judge Togliatti has pointed out that Dozier did not simply volunteer to be executed. The condemned inmate “reiterated his desire to be executed” in letters he recently wrote, according to Las Vegas Now.
Dozier still has time to change his mind. He can appeal his sentence, which would postpone his date with death. If he holds to affirming to Judge Togliatti that his execution carried out, he will be Nevada’s first death row inmate to have lethal injection administered since the late Daryl Mack, who was put to death in 2006.
