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Four executions are set to take place in the United States this week, with the first scheduled in Louisiana on Tuesday.
Jessie Hoffman, 46, convicted of the 1996 murder of Molly Elliott, will be put to death by nitrogen gas, marking Louisiana’s first execution in 15 years.
Hoffman, who was found guilty of abducting and killing Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive, is the first person to face execution in the state since 2008.
His execution had previously been stayed by a district court judge, who questioned whether nitrogen gas would constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the US Constitution.
However, the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the stay, allowing the execution to proceed.
The method of nitrogen hypoxia, which suffocates the inmate by pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, has been criticised by UN experts as inhumane.
Louisiana will join Alabama as the only state to carry out executions by this method.
Hoffman’s defence team has appealed to the US Supreme Court, arguing that the method would interfere with his ability to perform Buddhist meditative breathing.
His lawyer, Cecelia Kappel, claimed that there were alternative methods of execution that would not impede his religious practice.
In addition to Hoffman’s execution, three other lethal injections are set to take place this week in Arizona, Florida, and Oklahoma.
Aaron Gunches, 53, will be executed in Arizona on Wednesday for the 2002 murder of Ted Price, while Wendell Grissom, 56, will face execution in Oklahoma on Thursday for killing Amber Matthews during a robbery in 2005. Edward James, 63, is scheduled for execution in Florida on Thursday for the 1993 rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl and her grandmother.
This marks the sixth execution of the year, following 25 executions in 2024.
Despite this, 23 US states have abolished the death penalty, with California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania maintaining moratoriums.
