Nevada high court gets flurry of filings in execution case
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Two drugmakers asked the Nevada Supreme Court on Monday to let a state court judge hear arguments before justices take up an appeal about whether the state can use their products for an execution.
The companies "and the citizens of Nevada have a substantial interest in knowing how the state intends to carry out the process of killing a human being under a death warrant," said Hikma Pharmaceuticals US, a maker of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl that has been blamed for overdose deaths nationwide.
State attorneys also filed documents ahead of a noon deadline pointing to a federal judge's decision last Friday in Nebraska not to block a scheduled Tuesday execution. The filing was based on what Nevada calls "copy-cat" arguments by a pharmaceutical company objecting to its drug being used in that state.
Nevada justices should follow Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf's reasoning in the Nebraska case, state Deputy Solicitor General Jordan T. Smith said, and allow Nevada to carry out the execution of Scott Raymond Dozier.
"Many people of good faith object to the death penalty," Kopf observed. But he noted that Nebraska voters favor capital punishment, and courts should not frustrate the functioning of a democracy.
Two more filings were made in Nevada after the noon deadline, including drug company Sandoz Inc.'s bid to weigh in to argue against its product being used, and an additional state filing arguing that drug companies shouldn't be allowed to begin a "fishing expedition" for evidence.
The Nevada state high court didn't immediately act or schedule hearings about how to proceed with the prison's effort to set a new date for the twice-postponed lethal injection of the twice-convicted killer. But justices have acted quickly on other recent developments in the case.
Dozier, 47, is not challenging his convictions or sentences for killings in Phoenix and Las Vegas. He insists he wants to die and doesn't really care if it's painful.
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USCIS Will Begin Accepting CW-1 Petitions for Fiscal Year 2019
On April 2, 2018, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting petitions under the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI)-Only Transitional Worker (CW-1) program subject to the fiscal year (FY) 2019 cap. Employers in the CNMI use the CW-1 program to employ foreign workers who are ineligible for other nonimmigrant worker categories. The cap for CW-1 visas for FY 2019 is 4,999.
For the FY 2019 cap, USCIS encourages employers to file a petition for a CW-1 nonimmigrant worker up to six months in advance of the proposed start date of employment and as early as possible within that timeframe. USCIS will reject a petition if it is filed more than six months in advance. An extension petition may request a start date of Oct. 1, 2018, even if that worker’s current status will not expire by that date.
Since USCIS expects to receive more petitions than the number of CW-1 visas available for FY 2019, USCIS may conduct a lottery to randomly select petitions and associated beneficiaries so that the cap is not exceeded. The lottery would give employers the fairest opportunity to request workers, particularly with the possibility of mail delays from the CNMI.
USCIS will count the total number of beneficiaries in the petitions received after 10 business days to determine if a lottery is needed. If the cap is met after those initial 10 days, a lottery may still need to be conducted with only the petitions received on the last day before the cap was met. USCIS will announce when the cap is met and whether a lottery has been conducted.