Louisiana is preparing this week to execute a man by nitrogen gas, the first execution in the state in 15 years. Since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976, states have used five different methods to execute condemned prisoners: lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, firing squad and hanging. Louisiana is set to become the second state to use nitrogen gas as an execution method if it carries out the death sentence against Jessie Hoffman Jr. He was convicted of the 1996 murder of a woman in New Orleans. Alabama became the first state to use nitrogen gas in 2024.
