Louisiana and Arkansas turn to nitrogen executions

By Andrew Demillo, Kim Chandler and Sara Cline

Little Rock, Ark. (AP) – Hours after the first execution of the country by gas nitrogen in January of last year, the Alabama Attorney General urged other states to also develop it as a method of carrying out death penalties.

Now, some states follow suit.

Louisiana is expected to execute a nitrogen gas on March 18. Arkansas legislators seek to present a break after an eight -year break.

The use of gaseous nitrogen is a means for the death penalty states to resume the executions after being hampered by a shortage of drugs by lethal injection. But the proposed expansion occurs in the midst of a continuous debate on its constitutionality and what four detainees of Alabama have experienced when they were put to death.

“As Alabama has demonstrated, nitrogen hypoxia is a human and effective method of execution,” said Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, praising Louisiana’s plans to use it and offered help.

Critics have said that states, in a hurry to carry out death penalties, turn to a method that increases suffering.

“I would say that it is horrible and evil,” said Reverend Jeff Hood, who witnessed the first nitrogen execution in Alabama.

How does a nitrogen execution work?

An inmate is forced to breathe gas nitrogen, depriving them of the oxygen necessary to stay alive. In Alabama, the detainee is attached to a Gurney with a gas mask covering their face. Nitrogen is pumped into the mask and flows five minutes after the person’s heart stops beating. Nitrogen sank about 18 minutes in the last execution of the Alabama on February 6.

What happened during the first four nitrogen executions?

Alabama has executed four people with gas nitrogen. The detainees seemed to shake and drop, to various degrees during their executions, according to the witnesses of the media, including the Associated Press.

A doctor who was a spiritual advisor to the Alabama detainee, Alan Miller, said when he was executed on September 24 by gas nitrogen, Miller grimimed and shook on the Gurney. We didn’t know when Miller lost consciousness.

“I imagine that it is what the water board looks like, just that your body would shake like that while you slowly suffocate. … It is certainly not a peaceful way of dying, “said Dr. John Muench to the Associated Press last year.

State officials have said that tremors and dressings are involuntary movements associated with oxygen deprivation.

“There will be movements of the body involuntarily because the body is exhausted in oxygen. It was therefore nothing that we did not expect, “said Alabama Correctional Services Commissioner John Hamm after Miller’s execution.

Louisiana plans to be the second state to use nitrogen

Louisiana plans to use a mask to deliver gaseous nitrogen to execute Jessie Hoffman on March 18. If the execution goes ahead, Louisiana will become the second state to use the nitrogen to carry out a death sentence. Hoffman was found guilty of Mary Elliott’s abduction and 1996 murder.

A judge has planned a Friday hearing for a preliminary injunction to stop the execution. Hoffman’s lawyers say that Louisiana seeks to make them their “test affair” for the new method.

Last year, the legislature dominated by the Republicans of Louisiana extended the capital pain methods to include hypoxia and electrocution of nitrogen in order to resume executions after a 15 -year break.

In an interview with the Associated Press last month, Louisiana’s prosecutor General Liz Murrill said she expected at least four people in the death corridor is executed this year.

“The family and friends of people who have been brutally murdered in our state should obtain justice that the law has promised them,” said Murrill on social networks.

Arkansas legislators plan to authorize the authorization of nitrogen gas executions

Arkansas legislators advanced legislation on Tuesday to authorize gas nitrogen as an execution method. Supporters say that this will allow executions to resume in a state that has not put anyone to death since he executed four detainees in 2017.

The Arkansas Chamber adopted the bill on the execution of nitrogen during a vote of 67-23, sending the measure to the State Senate. More than half of the 35 members of the Senate signed as a sponsors of the legislation.

Republican representative Jeff Wardlaw proposed the measure after talking with the families of the victims of a mass shooting in a grocery store of his district which killed four people. Prosecutors did not declare if they intended to ask for the death penalty against Travis Eugene Posey, who was charged during the shooting. He pleaded not guilty.

“As long as we have the death penalty as a sentence of the Arkansas courts can impose, I think it is important that we have a method that can really take place,” Wardlaw said last week.

The manufacturers of drugs have opposed the use of their products in fatal injections, and the state officials say that this prevented them from taking up the executions. The Arkansas has 25 detainees in the death corridor.

Republican governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not say if she would sign the legislation if she reaches her office.

Arkansas and other states have widened the secret surrounding executions in recent years, promoting laws blocking information on the source of their lethal injection drugs and other details. This secret raises more questions about the efforts of the states to add nitrogen optional for executions, according to experts.

“It is very difficult to know why they would rotate what is essentially an experimental execution method,” said Robin Maher, executive director of Death Pinnalty Information Center. “These secret efforts only raise more questions and concerns about security and if it is an appropriate use of taxpayers’ funds.”

Jeff Rosenzweig, a lawyer who represented death prisoners in Arkansas, said that nitrogen hypoxia was still going to face legal challenges in the state. He cited concerns raised about the executions carried out using the Alabama method.

“You will end up with a lot of disputes on this subject, so that will not solve the problem that has been identified,” he told legislators.

Originally published: March 6, 2025 at 9:39 am PST