Nevada has adequate drug supply to execute Zane Floyd in 2021
Nevada could still execute Zane Floyd this year.
The state’s supply of proposed lethal injection drugs will not expire before a stay of execution for the condemned prisoner runs out, according to court records made public Thursday.
A federal judge’s order this week prohibits the Nevada Department of Corrections from killing Floyd before October, but the prison system has enough drugs to perform an execution as late as Nov. 30.
The lethal injection manual calls for a cocktail consisting of fentanyl or alfentanil, which are painkillers; ketamine, an anesthetic; cisatracurium, a paralytic; and heart-stopping potassium chloride or potassium acetate.
A supply of potassium chloride expires later this month.
“NDOC Defendants will suffer actual prejudice under a three-to-four month preliminary injunction and/or stay as NDOC will be deprived of a known drug for use in the lethal injection,” Deputy Attorney General Randall Gilmer, the prison system’s lawyer, wrote in court papers.
But the state could substitute potassium chloride with its supply of potassium acetate, which will not expire until May 2023.
Until this week, prison officials have attempted to keep secret the expiration dates of drugs they want to use in Floyd’s execution.
He was sentenced to die after fatally shooting four employees and gravely wounding another inside an Albertsons on West Sahara Avenue in June 1999. He also was convicted of repeatedly raping a woman before the shooting.
Now 45, Floyd would be the first person executed in Nevada since 2006.
Floyd’s federal public defenders have argued that the untested combination of drugs planned for his lethal injection would lead to “unconstitutional pain and suffering.”
As recently as last week, spokesman W.C. “Bill” Quenga told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that “NDOC does not keep specific records regarding expiration dates.”
But in urging U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware to lift a stay of execution, the prison lawyer filed court papers that listed each of the drugs, a date of purchase and the expiration date.
He tried to keep the expiration dates out of public view, but the judge made the details public in an order Thursday.
Meanwhile, one of the drugmakers, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, has demanded the return of its ketamine.
A week ago, a lawyer for Hikma wrote a cease-and-desist letter to Attorney General Aaron Ford, saying the Nevada Department of Corrections obtained 50 vials of ketamine illegally.
So far, Nevada officials have not responded to Hikma’s letter.
“In the past, we’ve launched vigorous legal challenges to prevent the use of our medicines in capital punishment,” Hikma spokesman Steve Weiss told the Review-Journal on Thursday. “We have a range of options we are considering to prevent Nevada from using our medicine for this lethal injection.”
Along with Hikma, each of the other manufacturers of the medicines in the state’s proposed lethal injection protocol, and the wholesaler through which the drugs were purchased, have voiced objections to using their drugs in capital punishment, according to the Lethal Injection Information Center and company websites.
Defense attorney Scott Coffee, a board member of the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty, criticized the state’s apparently clandestine drug acquisition.
“The lack of transparency on the part of NDOC is troubling to say the least,” Coffee said. “There’s no reason not to play above board when a man’s life is at stake. … The death penalty is a bedrock issue for criminal justice in this state, and the public has the right to know.”
Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.