Louisiana Plans to Resume Capital Punishment With First Nitrogen Execution

U.S.|Louisiana Plans to Resume Capital Punishment With First Nitrogen Execution

Almost immediately after taking office last year, Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana pushed through bills that lengthened prison sentences and eliminated parole for most new convictions. And he argued that resuming executions after a long lull would signal that the state was serious about cracking down on crime.

On Tuesday, the state intends to do that, by carrying out its first execution since 2010. It will use nitrogen gas, a method first used by Alabama last year, and legalized by Louisiana lawmakers shortly afterward.

“For too long, Louisiana has failed to uphold the promises made to victims of our state’s most violent crimes,” Mr. Landry, a Republican, said in February after state prison officials adopted a protocol for executions using the gas. He expressed hope that the state could break through a logjam in executions that was caused by legal challenges to lethal injection and the difficulty of obtaining the necessary drugs. “We will carry out these sentences, and justice will be dispensed,” the governor said.

Jessie Hoffman, 46, is the prisoner scheduled to be put to death on Tuesday evening. He was sentenced for the 1996 abduction, rape and killing of Molly Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive from New Orleans.

Mr. Hoffman’s lawyers were still working on Tuesday to try to block the execution. They appeared in federal court in Baton Rouge in the morning, arguing that death by nitrogen gas would deprive Mr. Hoffman of his right to religious expression, specifically the meditative breathing that they say is part of his religious practice as a Buddhist.

Nitrogen executions kill a person by depriving them of oxygen, as they inhale pure nitrogen through a mask.