Louisiana is preparing to carry out its first execution in 14 years using nitrogen gas—a method that has never been used before in the state and is widely criticized as cruel and untested.

Jessie Hoffman, who has been on death row for nearly three decades, is set to be executed using nitrogen gas, a method that deprives a person of oxygen, leading to suffocation.

Experts have warned that this method could cause severe distress, panic, and suffering, making it a violation of human rights and basic decency.

A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the execution by nitrogen gas, ruling that the largely untested method could cause the inmate "pain and terror."

The American Veterinary Medical Association does not even approve nitrogen hypoxia as a humane way to euthanize large mammals due to the potential for suffering — yet Louisiana is willing to use it on human beings. 

Alabama’s first nitrogen gas execution in January 2024 was described as a “horrific failure,” with the condemned man convulsing and struggling for several minutes before dying.

Leo Lewis, a member of the Jews Against Gassing Coalition, a New Orleans-area group decrying the state’s efforts to use nitrogen gas, because, members say, such a method echoes the Holocaust, when 6 million Jews were murdered by Nazi Germany.

Using this method ignores the risk of botched executions and subjects people to potential torture. Louisiana should not set a dangerous precedent by moving forward with this experiment.

We call on Governor Jeff Landry and Louisiana officials to immediately halt plans to use nitrogen gas for executions.

Photo: AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File