Louisiana’s governor, Jeff Landry, signed a bill into law that adds nitrogen gas and electrocution to the list of ways people can be put to death in the state.
The new law is one of a number of crime-related bills that Republicans in the state assembly led to passing during a special session.
Now, Louisiana has more ways to put someone to death than just injecting them with poison. Nitrogen, gas, and electricity can also be used.
The new set of bills that were signed also gets rid of parole for almost all people guilty of crimes after August 1 and raises the age to 17 for all crimes where someone can be tried as an adult.
Last week, Mr. Landry, a Republican, said he supported the “tough-on-crime” bills. On Tuesday, he signed them into law, saying they will “start to make Louisiana safe.”
“Today we do something right for the victims,” Mr. Landry said.
After Alabama executed a man with nitrogen gas just over a month ago, the bill was passed. This was the first execution in US history to use this method.
Officials said that people who were put to death this way would lose consciousness seconds after the nitrogen gas was given, but 58-year-old Kenneth Eugene Smith seemed to be awake for several minutes after the process started. He moved like he was having a seizure and had trouble breathing. It took him 22 minutes to die.
It’s been over 14 years since Louisiana last put someone on death row. Because he was Catholic, Mr. Landry’s boss, John Bel Edwards, was against the death penalty.
Louisiana isn’t the only state that wants to approve new ways to put people to death, mostly because it’s hard to get drugs for lethal injection. In Idaho, Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma, and South Carolina, people can be put to death by a shooting squad.
The Death Penalty Information Center says that other than Louisiana and Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma also allow killings by nitrogen gas. In eight states, it is legal to kill someone by electrocution, but in seven of those states, lethal injection is still the preferred way.
A lot of Jewish people in Louisiana have spoken out against killings by nitrogen gas, which reminds people of how millions of people were killed in the Holocaust. Naomi Yavneh Klos, a professor at Loyola University New Orleans, wrote an opinion in the Verite News that called the method “deeply troubling.”
“As Jewish people who live in Louisiana, we believe that using any kind of gas for executions goes against our morals and against Judaism’s strong belief in the inherent worth of every person,” she wrote.
