Louisiana is preparing to carry out its first execution in 15 years using a gassing method that is banned under the state’s own laws for euthanizing cats and dogs.
Barring a last-minute intervention by the US supreme court, Jessie Hoffman, 46, is scheduled to die by nitrogen gas on Tuesday at Louisiana state penitentiary, commonly known as Angola prison. He was sentenced to death for the 1996 rape and murder of an advertising executive, Mary Elliott.
Should the execution go ahead, Louisiana would become only the second state to use nitrogen gas as a means of killing people. Lawyers for the condemned man have decried the pending procedure as cruel and unusual punishment.
They point to the four nitrogen executions that have been carried out in recent months in Alabama, in which all four prisoners displayed signs of distress on the gurney. They included Kenneth Smith, who witnesses said shook violently, writhed and convulsed as he was forced to breathe pure nitrogen through a mask.
Another of the four, Alan Miller, shook and trembled on the gurney for about two minutes.
Nitrogen causes death by depriving the body of oxygen, essentially causing suffocation in a phenomenon known as hypoxia. As an indication of its controversial nature, it is frowned upon as a form of euthanasia for most mammals on grounds that conscious animals can be extremely distressed before they succumb.
The American Veterinary Medical Association has ruled that nitrogen should only be used to euthanise dogs and cats that have already been rendered unconscious through sedation. Those guidelines have been adopted into Louisiana state law, which specifically outlaws gassing as a method of euthanasia in cats and dogs.
Lee Capone, a Louisiana veterinarian for the past 45 years, was part of the campaign to ban gassing for mammals in the state. He became convinced that the method was an inhumane euthanasia technique after he saw dogs being killed with gas in the early 1980s.
“A large number of dogs were put into a concrete bunker and gassed. It was clear from their bodies, which had eyes wide open and dilated, saliva round the mouth, signs of vomiting and diarrhea, that they had been frightened and scared, and had suffered,” Capone told the Guardian.
He said that he had become convinced that gassing was inhumane for cats and dogs, “much less people”. Capone added that he found the idea of Hoffman being killed in this way “horrific. We are going backwards, it’s not humane.”
Hoffman was granted a temporary reprieve last week from a federal judge. But the stay was overturned late on Friday by the fifth circuit court of appeals – one of the most ultra-rightwing federal courts in the country.
Photographs taken from inside the death chamber in Angola have been put into the public court record. They give the first insight into how the state intends to carry out the killing.
They show a blue, industrial-style mask lying on the gurney beside a leather strap and handcuffs. They also show a series of pipes through which the gas will be conducted.
Last year the Guardian revealed that three of the biggest manufacturers of medical-grade nitrogen in the US had put a block on their products being used in executions. Airgas, Air Products and Matheson Gas all took steps to prevent their nitrogen reaching departments of correction in death penalty states.
Airgas, which is owned by the French multinational Air Liquide, told the Guardian that it would not supply nitrogen or other inert gases “for the purpose of human execution”.
Photographs included as unsealed exhibits in ongoing litigation in Louisiana show that the corrections department has obtained canisters of nitrogen gas that were produced by Airgas, in apparent contravention of the company’s prohibition.
The likely use of Airgas nitrogen in Tuesday’s execution would be a direct breach of the firm’s stipulation that it wants nothing to do with judicial killings.
The Guardian has reached out to Airgas for comment but did not immediately hear back from the company.
