Scott Dozier: Death Row Prisoner Kills Himself After Execution Halted

A man twice convicted of murder whose execution was twice postponed was found dead in a Nevada jail cell, prison officials said.

Scott Dozier, 48, was found dead in his death-row cell in Ely State Prison in Nevada Friday evening, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman told the Associated Press.

He was found in his cell with no-one else present, according to the department in a statement. Attempts by officials to revive him were unsuccessful.

"Dozier was pronounced dead at approximately 4:35 p.m. by emergency medical staff at the scene," said the statement.

Dozier was to be executed by lethal injection, but the date of execution was halted last July, after a pharmaceuticals company filed for the state to stop using a chemical it manufactured for executions.

His execution had previously been halted in November 2017, amid concerns that drugs used in lethal injections caused excruciating suffering, and thus violated the constitution.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Review Journal, Dozier had said he disagreed with the judge's ruling, and said he was ready to die.

"Life in prison isn't a life," Dozier told the publication in 2018. "This isn't living, man. It's just surviving... If people say they're going to kill me, get to it."

After execution was delayed, Dozier was placed on suicide watch in an isolation cell.

Campaigns by anti-death penalty activists have seen several chemicals companies withdraw their chemicals for use in executions, with some states bringing back older forms of execution such as the electric chair amid legal challenges.

Dozier was convicted of the first degree murder of Jeremiah Miller in 2002. He shot Miller dead before dismembering his body and stuffing the remains into several suitcases.

He was also convicted of killing Jasen Green, whose remains were found in an Arizona desert in 2001.