A pharmaceutical company sued Wednesday to stop the state of Nevada from using an untested drug in a lethal injection, the Hill reports.
In only the second case ever of a drug company seeking to halt an execution, Midazolam manufacturer Alvogen claims Nevada illegally used the chief medical officer’s license to buy the drug, according to the Reno Gazette Journal. Court documents obtained by NBC say that the company did not want its drug—which would be part of an untested three-drug cocktail that also includes fentanyl—used in “botched” executions.
The state originally set convicted murderer Scott Dozier’s execution for Wednesday night.
The Nevada prison system faces other challenges. Alvogen’s lawsuit comes one day after reports surfaced criticizing Nevada’s plan to carry out the first-ever execution with fentanyl.
“Using fentanyl in an execution is particularly strange and confusing because of its place in the opioid epidemic,” American Civil Liberties Union legal director Amy Rose told the Hill.
The ACLU also raised concerns that the state broke the law in obtaining the fentanyl. “It’s concerning that [drug distributor] Cardinal Health would sell it to the department of corrections if it knew the drugs would be used in executions,” Rose said.
