by Nancy Hart

On Tuesday, the justices of the Nevada Supreme Court will hear an appeal in Scott Dozier’s death penalty case. They will consider whether the Department of Corrections can use a paralytic as part of a never-before-tried combination of drugs in an attempt to kill Mr. Dozier.

Last November, a lower court determined that use of the paralytic was unconstitutional, but permitted the state to proceed with the execution using the other two drugs — fentanyl (an opioid) and diazepam (Valium). Not satisfied with that result, the state appealed to our highest court to argue for the inclusion of the paralytic, which can mask the effect that the other drugs are having and makes witnesses feel better because the prisoner appears placid and pain-free.

Sound macabre? It is.

Last summer, Mr. Dozier gave up his available appeals and asked the state to put him to death. Nevada, however, lacked the drugs to kill him because pharmaceutical manufacturers prohibited the use of their drugs in executions. So the Department of Corrections now wants to use an experimental combination of drugs to get around the prohibition.

Even if the high court says the Department can use the paralytic, existing supplies of that drug have expired. As a result, another round of experimental drugs will probably be proposed.

Meanwhile, taxpayers are spending enormous amounts of money to litigate and maybe carry out an execution that Mr. Dozier can call off at any time. 

Scott Dozier’s case is evidence of Nevada’s broken death penalty system. If executed, he will be the 12th Nevadan to volunteer to be executed since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty in 1976. In the past 40 years, only one individual in Nevada has been put to death against his will; the rest (11 individuals) have been "volunteers" who have given up their appeals and asked to be killed. In the same time period, at least that many death row inmates have died of natural causes or suicide.

Meantime, there are more than 80 inmates on Nevada’s death row who are pursuing appeals that may take decades to resolve. These appeals are necessary because capital cases are extremely complex and errors are frequently made; many cases are reversed and retried.

Murder victims’ families and loved ones who are given a false promise of closure and justice are usually re-traumatized by these multiple proceedings. Prosecutors say there is no price for justice, but more and more victims’ family members are realizing that the death penalty does not bring them peace or true healing. 

Nevada, like many states, has not had an execution in more than a decade. Still, Clark County has one of the highest rates of filing and pursuing the death penalty in the country. This futile process comes at a tremendous cost to taxpayers. In 2017, Clark County had the second-highest number of death penalty sentences for all counties in the U.S. Nevada also built a brand new $860,000 death chamber at the Ely prison over many legislators’ objections in 2016, a shameful waste of taxpayer resources in a state that lags far behind others in spending on education and human services.

Nevada can and should do better. We have life without the possibility of parole on the books, a severe punishment that keeps dangerous criminals locked up for life. We should abolish our death penalty and devote more resources to making our criminal justice system more responsive to the needs of those affected by crime and violence.

Nancy Hart is the president of the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty, a statewide group of individuals and organizations that works to end capital punishment in Nevada. She has been an active board member of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada for more than a decade. She is also an active volunteer leader in Amnesty International, USA. As a licensed attorney since 1989, Nancy has worked in a variety of roles to improve the justice system's response to victims of domestic violence.