16 August 2018 :

Drug company files Supreme Court brief in death penalty case. Alvogen Inc., says in a brief filed with the Nevada Supreme Court on Monday its sedative drug Midazolam hasn't been approved by the Federal Drug Administration for use in executions. And the company maintains the drug was obtained by the state Department of Corrections illegally from a third party firm. The execution of Dozier has been delayed twice due to legal challenges. Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez issued a temporary restraining order on July 11 (see) to allow the New Jersey firm a hearing to present its case. The corrections department appealed the Gonzalez order in an effort to restart the death penalty process. It maintains Alvogen has no standing to file suit that will prevent or delay the execution. Dozier has maintained he wants to die by lethal injection by a 3-drug combination. The Supreme Court has decided to fast track the case but hasn't set a date for legal arguments. Alvogen, which operates in 35 countries, said the corrections department made 3 purchases "surreptitiously" of Midazolam from Cardinal Health. "The state knew such acquisitions were illegitimate as evidenced by its efforts to conceal its actions even when faced with requests for disclosure," said the Alvogen brief. The corrections department will have a chance to answer the allegations of Alvogen in its effort to clear the way to put Dozier to death. Dozier has been on death row since 2007 for the 2002 murder of Jeremiah Miller. Beginning in 2016, he gave up any effort to appeal his sentence, and maintained that he wanted to be put to death. Just hours before Dozier was set to die on July 11, judge Gonzalez issued a temporary restraining order blocking the state from using the Midazolam. In response, Nevada filed a petition with the Nevada Supreme Court, asking that the decision that halted the execution be thrown out and accusing Alvogen of mounting a public relations campaign. "Alvogen filed this lawsuit to salvage its image and shift the blame to the State for Alvogen's failure to impose the controls that it was touting to anti-death penalty advocates," the petition says. The state Supreme Court is now considering the petition. Nevada now has to contend with yet another manufacturer and in response leveled similarly harsh criticism for Hikma, implying that it was attempting to distract attention from a far bigger problem. The deputy solicitor general called it "ironic that the maker of fentanyl, which is at the center of the nation's opioid crisis and is responsible for illegal overdoses every day is going to...claim reputational injury from being associated with a lawful execution." Assuming that the drugs were manufactured by Pfizer, Independent Nebraska state Sen. Ernie Chambers, a long time anti-death penalty advocate, urged the company to follow in Alvogen's footsteps and sue the state in order to have the drugs returned and the execution halted. But the company said it had no records of Nebraska obtaining restricted drugs and was not going to file a lawsuit. "So where did the governor get his drugs?" Chambers wrote on Facebook after Pfizer declined to sue the state. "He's not saying, and he's refusing to obey the courts who have ordered him to share the information." Republican attorneys general from 15 states filed documents on Aug. 6 with the Nevada Supreme Court arguing that drug company Alvogen's claims are a part of a "guerrilla war against the death penalty." The attorneys general represent Arkansas, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.