A federal judge has halted Louisiana's first nitrogen gas execution. The state says it will appeal

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A federal judge has halted Louisiana’s first death row execution using nitrogen gas, which was scheduled to take place next week.

U.S. District Court Judge Shelly Dick issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday, stopping the state from immediately moving forward with the execution, which would have been Louisiana’s first in 15 years. Attorney General Liz Murrill said the state will immediately appeal the decision.

In her ruling, Dick said the court is tasked with answering the question: “Is nitrogen hypoxia cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment?”

Dick went on to say that it is in the public’s interest to halt the execution until the matter can “be resolved at a trial on the merits” and that the injunction is especially of public interest if it prevents “the violation of constitutional rights.” She added that it is not a question of whether Jessie Hoffman Jr. will be executed, but rather how.

-snip-

By SARA CLINE
Updated 7:03 PM EDT, March 11, 2025


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/louisiana-execution-nitrogen-468b8b1d56b0f3bbb394259a35bf20f8

[Polybius]

1. I'm sure it will be reversed

We just had a death by the firing squad less than a week ago. If that held up, anything will.

[LeftInTX]

4. Firing squads appear cruel and unusual to us, but death is instant.

The judge probably looked at this other and other inmates' autopsies.

An autopsy of Smith's body was conducted by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. The autopsy showed Smith exhibited signs of negative-pressure pulmonary edema, had "dark maroon blood" and fluid present in his lungs along with "marked congestion", and had "frothy fluid" in his trachea. Another death row inmate scheduled to die by nitrogen hypoxia in Alabama in November 2024, Carey Dale Grayson, hired an expert to analyze Smith's autopsy results in August 2024. After a review, the expert called the results "highly concerning."[33][34] Brian McAlary, an anesthesiologist, wrote in an argument on Grayson's behalf that Smith likely panicked due to an automatic response to the inability to breathe oxygen and that Smith's panic may have been avoided if he had been given a sedative prior to his execution. A second expert, Thomas Andrew, the chief medical examiner of New Hampshire, agreed that Smith should have been sedated before his execution because nitrogen hypoxia introduces "a sense of the absence of oxygen, air hunger, and all of the panic and discomfort that is part and parcel of that way of dying."[34]

Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned Alabama's use of nitrogen gas to administer Smith's death penalty and stated that the method had amounted to a potential form of torture and degrading punishment.[35][36]

After Smith's execution, several other states became open to the possibility of legally carrying out nitrogen gas executions. Notably, lawmakers from Ohio, where a moratorium has been in effect since the state's last execution in 2018, were considering to legalize nitrogen gas as a new method of execution aside from lethal injection.[37][38][39] Four months later, Alan Eugene Miller, another death row inmate who was found guilty of fatally shooting three people in 1999, was also scheduled to be executed by nitrogen gas in Alabama.[40] On September 26, 2024, Miller was executed by nitrogen gas, becoming the second person after Smith to be executed using this method.[41] Carey Dale Grayson, who was 19 when he murdered a hitchhiker in 1994, was executed by nitrogen gas, becoming the third person in Alabama on November 21, 2024.[42][43][44] Convicted serial rapist and killer Demetrius Terrence Frazier, was the fourth condemned inmate to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia on February 6, 2025.[45][46]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_of_Kenneth_Eugene_Smith

[Lionel Mandrake]

2. The question

whether "nitrogen hypoxia cruel and unusual punishment" is stupid. It may be unusual, but it's certainly not cruel. The body has no way to even detect, let alone suffer from, the lack of oxygen in a pure nitrogen environment. There's no buildup of carbon dioxide, hence no hint that anything is wrong. This is by far the kindest and gentlest way to perform an execution.

[LeftInTX]

5. The autopsy of the first case from 2024 did not indicate this

An autopsy of Smith's body was conducted by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. The autopsy showed Smith exhibited signs of negative-pressure pulmonary edema, had "dark maroon blood" and fluid present in his lungs along with "marked congestion", and had "frothy fluid" in his trachea. Another death row inmate scheduled to die by nitrogen hypoxia in Alabama in November 2024, Carey Dale Grayson, hired an expert to analyze Smith's autopsy results in August 2024. After a review, the expert called the results "highly concerning."[33][34] Brian McAlary, an anesthesiologist, wrote in an argument on Grayson's behalf that Smith likely panicked due to an automatic response to the inability to breathe oxygen and that Smith's panic may have been avoided if he had been given a sedative prior to his execution. A second expert, Thomas Andrew, the chief medical examiner of New Hampshire, agreed that Smith should have been sedated before his execution because nitrogen hypoxia introduces "a sense of the absence of oxygen, air hunger, and all of the panic and discomfort that is part and parcel of that way of dying."[34]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_of_Kenneth_Eugene_Smith

Many animal control facilities used carbon monoxide gas. Our city would euthanize dozens daily. But now they have gone to injections.

https://www.texastribune.org/2013/05/31/new-animal-law-welcome-outset-expensive/

[Wonder Why]

3. I am not against the concept of execution in some extreme cases of mass killings or brutality BUT

I would take exception of any execution that did not have the governor appoint a committee who's sole purpose was to convince him/her that execution was not appropriate in this case because of diminished mental state, any extenuating circumstances, prosecution failures to be totally truthful with the courts, clearly demonstrated remorse, or other good reason. Then the governor would have to honestly read the report, talk to the committee and decide in his heart that the person truly deserves to die. (This will never happen so I would not accept the death penalty any time).

As to the method of execution, if people every day can have major surgery with no obvious pain until they are revived from anesthesia, then there has to be a way to execute criminals with no pain but those kinds of medicines are not used because of pressure by from some of us to discourage any company from providing them. If a painless death cannot be done, then we cannot allow the death penalty.

The increased occurrence of executions is more of a retribution than a statement that "this person is unfit to remain alive because they have shown and will continue to show that they are a danger to society if allowed to live". That kind of attitude, more than anything, IMHO, shows that executions must stop because we are executing people because "we want to get back at them".

[Miguelito Loveless]

6. I will always oppose execution

given how many "slam dunk" cases turned out to wrong. Humans are, at best, fallible, and at worst corrupt and vindictive. If you allow executions, inevitably innocent people will be be murdered.