Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry says the state has finalized its protocol for executions by the highly controversial method of nitrogen hypoxia, in which a lack of oxygen to the body causes death. The move opens the door to the state's first execution since 2010, when Gerald Bordelon waived his right to appeals and died by lethal injection.
Landry's announcement comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office, January 20, 2025, boosting state resources to carry out death sentences. As Kat Stromquist with the Gulf States Newsroom reports, part of Louisiana’s long pause in executions involves the challenges in obtaining the drugs used for lethal injections.
In response, Louisiana lawmakers voted to legalize nitrogen gas executions on February 29, 2024 at the end of a special ‘tough on crime’ legislative session. Only three other states have approved the use of nitrogen gas for executions, which include Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi. On Monday, Gov. Landry released a statement, saying the updated protocol will allow death sentences to be carried out and quote "keep its promises" to crime victims. The current death row population in Louisiana stands at 63, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
So far, only Alabama has used this execution method, a total of four times beginning on January 25, 2024, with the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith. An eyewitness described to PBS News Hour watching Smith as he “began to shake and writhe violently, in thrashing spasms and seizure-like movements…The shaking went on for at least two-minutes.”
United Nations experts have described the execution method of nitrogen hypoxia as a form of torture and a violation of international human rights treaty ratified by the United States. As recently as November 2024, the United Nations Human Rights Office called for an “urgent ban on executions by nitrogen gas in Alabama.” The statement came one day before the third such execution of the year on November 21, 2024, for death row inmate Carey Grayson.
