Louisiana
The only other state to actually carry out a nitrogen execution — and the state most likely to try again.
- Status
- Used
- Executions
- 1
- Authorized
- 2024
- Statute
- La. R.S. 15:569 (as amended 2024)
How Louisiana got here
Louisiana amended its execution statute in 2024 to authorize nitrogen hypoxia and adopted a protocol closely modeled on Alabama's. On March 18, 2025 it executed Jessie Hoffman Jr. at Angola — the state's first execution of any kind in 15 years. Chief Judge Shelly D. Dick had issued the most robust judicial safeguards yet against the method, including on RLUIPA religious-exercise grounds (Hoffman was a practicing Buddhist); the Fifth Circuit reversed and the Supreme Court declined to intervene 5–4. Louisiana has additional warrants queued and has not repealed its statute after the Lee injunction.
The process, step by step