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2 EMTs withdraw from contested Nev. execution

A hearing is scheduled to debate the legalities of using a new drug combination for the lethal injection

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Zane Floyd is scheduled to die by lethal injection by the end of the month. He shot and killed four people.

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By Leila Merrill

LAS VEGAS — After U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware II requested credentials of the two EMTs and two doctors enlisted to oversee an execution, all four of them withdrew their names, the Associated Press reported.

The Nevada execution of Zane Floyd has an end-of-February deadline. Floyd was given a death sentence for fatally shooting four people and severely wounding another at a Las Vegas grocery store, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

A hearing is set to begin Thursday over whether the state’s plan to utilize a never-before-used drug combination for the lethal injection death would lead to an unconstitutionally cruel and inhumane death. One of those drugs has an expiration date of Feb. 28.

State Department of Corrections operations official William Gittere said he is looking for replacement doctors and EMTs.