Nevada’s execution chamber at Ely State Prison in 2016. Nevada prison officials say they will use a never-before-tried combination of drugs for the state’s first lethal injection in 15 years. Nevada Department of Corrections via AP hide caption
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Nevada Department of Corrections via AP
Nevada’s execution chamber at Ely State Prison in 2016. Nevada prison officials say they will use a never-before-tried combination of drugs for the state’s first lethal injection in 15 years.
Nevada Department of Corrections via AP
LAS VEGAS – Nevada prison officials announced Thursday that they would use a never-before-tried combination of drugs for the state’s first lethal injection in 15 years, including the powerful opioid fentanyl, the sedative ketamine, and a cardiac arresting salt, potassium chloride .
In an execution manual made available to a federal judge prior to a possible death date in late July for convicted mass murderer Zane Michael Floyd, a similar-acting drug said alfentanil, fentanyl and potassium acetate could replace potassium chloride.
In a four-drug procedure, the muscle-paralyzing cisatracurium would also be used to stop the convict’s breathing before he was given the cardiac arrest.
US District Judge Richard Boulware II said he could postpone the execution until the end of the month in order to have time to review drug choices and the 65-page execution manual.
Floyd, 45, doesn’t want to die. He was convicted in 2000 for killing four people and injuring a fifth in a 1999 shotgun attack in a Las Vegas grocery store.
He lost state and federal appeals and the US Supreme Court declined to hear his case.
A Las Vegas state judge said this week that prosecutors and prison officials can begin planning his execution for the week of July 26th.
Floyd’s federal defenders said they would appeal.
