Nevada death row inmate found dead in cell after execution called off twice

'I’ve been very clear about my desire to be executed...even if suffering is inevitable'

Nevada death row inmate Scott Raymond Dozier, right, confers with Lori Teicher, a federal public defender involved in his case, during an appearance in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas 17 Aug, 2017. (AP)

A death row inmate has been found dead in his cell after his execution was called off twice.

Scott Raymond Dozier, 48, was found unresponsive in his solo cell at Ely maximum-security prison in Nevada on Saturday, the state’s department of corrections said.

The twice-convicted murderer repeatedly said he wanted to die rather than live the rest of his life in prison.

He had tried to take his own life several times after two scheduled lethal injections were postponed.

“I’ve been very clear about my desire to be executed...even if suffering is inevitable,” Dozier said in a handwritten note to a judge who postponed his execution in November 2017 over concerns the untried drug regimen could leave him suffocating, conscious and unable to move.

“Just get it done, just do it effectively and stop fighting about it,” the inmate said last August – a month after a different judge stopped his execution close to the final hour.

Dozier’s bid to become the first Nevada inmate put to death since 2006 was called off twice amid a court battle over a three-drug combination that had never been used in the US.

The lethal injection includes sedative midazolam, muscle-paralysing agent cisatracurium, and powerful opioid fentanyl which has been blamed for overdoses nationwide.

In 2005, Dozier was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the shooting and mauling of 26-year-old Jasen Greene, whose body was found in 2002 in a shallow grave outside Phoenix, Arizona.

Nevada death row inmate Scott Raymond Dozier, 48, convicted of the murders of two men, was found dead in his cell on 5 January, 2019, after having his execution postponed twice. (AP)

He was then later linked to the robbing, killing and dismembering of 22-year-old Jeremiah Miller at a Las Vegas motel in 2002 and sentenced to death in 2007.

Dozier gave up appeals for the death sentence he received for the killings of his methamphetamine drug trade associates.

However, he allowed federal public defenders to challenge the method state officials planned to use on his behalf.

They argued that his lethal injection could be less humane than putting down a pet.

Drug companies who argue their products should not be used in an execution joined the fight, with cases still pending before state courts and the Nevada Supreme Court.

Nevada has drawn backing in the state high court fight from 15 of the 30 other US states with capital punishment.

Dozier, meanwhile, struggled with the legal limbo.

In December, state lawyers revealed in a separate lawsuit over Dozier’s treatment behind bars that he had attempted to take his life a number of times in recent months.

The details were contained in a lawsuit that challenged Dozier’s housing on suicide watch in an isolation cell.

The state insisted the isolation was to protect Dozier from self-harm, but his lawyers argued he was deteriorating because of unconstitutional treatment.

They claimed he was denied prison yard recreation time and the ability to read, communicate with his family or effectively consult with legal counsel.

Dozier was not on suicide watch on Saturday, Ms Santina said.

He was found dead at 4.35pm at the prison in Ely, about 250 miles (400km) north of Las Vegas.

The prison spokeswoman said she did not immediately know when Dozier had last been seen by guards.

She added that this would be part of investigations by the department’s inspector general and White Pine County sheriff’s office.

Additional reporting by Associated Press