Outspoken death-row inmate calls Nevada鈥檚 bluff
Scott Raymond Dozier, a death row inmate in the remote town of Ely, Nev., was twice convicted of murder 鈥� once in Arizona in 2005 and again in Nevada in 2007.
Nevada Department of Corrections /AP/File
Savannah, Ga.
Scott Dozier would rather be executed than live on death row. So the double-murderer, imprisoned in Ely, Nev., is urging the state to kill him.
Mr. Dozier may be motivated, at least in part, by narcissism. Psychologists say he tends to portray his existence in mythical terms.
But he鈥檚 also calling the bluff of Nevada, which 鈥� like four other states with a death penalty 鈥撀爃as virtually stopped carrying out capital punishment. Only those few聽inmates who 鈥渧olunteer鈥� to go forward with their punishment are actually executed. Nevada recently constructed a $1 million death chamber, but its last execution was in 2006. Such policies leave many inmates to spend years or even decades on death row.
Why We Wrote This
Scott Dozier鈥檚 case could push states that have retained the death penalty but have virtually stopped carrying it out to make a choice: Abolish it or find an acceptable method of execution.
鈥淟ife in prison isn鈥檛 a life,鈥� Dozier told the Las Vegas Review-Journal recently.
Dozier came within hours of his death wish last week before a national uproar over botched lethal injections interceded, and a state judge issued an injunction to allow an 11th -hour lawsuit聽by drugmaker Alvogen.
鈥淸Dozier] saw an opportunity to be the first execution in a dozen years, in the state鈥檚 new death chamber, and all these firsts could add to the myth,鈥� says Vince Gonzales, a Dallas-based sentencing expert who studied Dozier, and at one point was hired by his defense team.聽鈥淭hat came crashing down on him.鈥�
The case could still have a profound influence, however, by forcing those states that have essentially held on to the death penalty in name only to make a choice: abolish the punishment, or find an acceptable means of carrying it out.
The case 鈥渋s going to have reverberating effects across any death-penalty state using drugs or lethal injection,鈥� says Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor and death penalty expert.
Partly because of his willingness to speak out, Dozier鈥檚 gambit has reinvigorated questions about volunteers: At what point does state-sponsored homicide become state-assisted suicide?
Equally important, the Alvogen lawsuit 鈥� one of the first in which a drugmaker is directly suing the state 鈥� has put a fresh spotlight on states鈥� decade-long scramble to procure effective compounds for lethal injections.
In that way, Dozier鈥檚 saga personifies what many Americans find to be ethical gaps in the death penalty.
Ethical debate over lethal injection
His case closely mirrors that of Gary Gilmore, who was likewise intelligent and artistic 鈥� and demanded that his death sentence be carried out quickly.
鈥淭his is my life and this is my death,鈥� Gilmore said before facing a firing squad in 1977, making him the first to be executed after the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.聽
If Gilmore鈥檚 volunteerism defined the beginning of the modern death penalty era, Dozier鈥檚 may turn out to be the coda.
The number of executions across the United States fell to a 25-year low in 2017, and capital sentencing , the nation鈥檚 leading execution state. That鈥檚 a reflection in part of growing bipartisan opposition not only to the death penalty, but also to the substances used to execute inmates.
That states are now turning to controversial drugs like fentanyl 鈥� a key driver of opioid overdoses 鈥� highlights the ethical dilemma.
鈥淭he legitimacy of capital punishment has for a long time been tied into the illusion that we would find a technologically advanced way to kill,鈥� says Austin Sarat of Amherst College in Massachusetts who has studied the death penalty for more than four decades.
But in fact, former methods of execution are making a comeback.
In Tennessee, which is facing a challenge to its lethal concoction by 33 death-row inmates, the legislature has given the governor power to make the electric chair the primary rather than secondary method of execution.
The gas chamber, introduced in Nevada in the 1920s but since retired, could return in Oklahoma 鈥� which seeks to bypass the lethal injection crisis and use nitrogen gas.
鈥淚t was supposed to be more humane than the firing squad or hanging,鈥� says Michael Greene, a history professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. 鈥淲ell, now we look at [the gas chamber] and ask again: Is that barbaric? We are deciding what we think is barbaric in our time.鈥�
In support of the death penalty
Some death-penalty proponents say the gas chamber would be most effective and humane. But they are concerned that the debate is straying irresponsibly away from victims, their families, the law, and juries 鈥� and focusing instead on the wishes of the killers.
At Dozier鈥檚 trial, family members testified in support of giving him the death penalty.
鈥淲e lost our innocence, our ignorance, our calm, quiet lives,鈥� said Kimarie Miller, whose brother, Jeremiah Miller, was killed and dismembered by Dozier.
Dozier鈥檚 death sentence 鈥渉as been imposed and should be carried out, and right now we're allowing appeals [and legal challenges] to drag on much too long ... when there is no question of guilt,鈥� says Kent Scheidegger, director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento, Calif.
But Dozier鈥檚 stance challenges the assumption that death would be the worst punishment, offering a paradoxical glimpse into a death-penalty system where a shrinking number of US counties are sending convicts to death row.
鈥淢ost people think these inmates are fighting for their lives and the way to really get back at them is to kill them,鈥� says Fordham鈥檚 Prof. Denno. 鈥淏ut here we have someone ... who is rubbing that in people鈥檚 faces and saying, 鈥楧o you want me to suffer? Then let me live.鈥� 鈥�