Louisiana Senate Committee Approves Legislation Supported by Jewish Community to Remove Nitrogen Hypoxia as Possible Method of Execution

On April 16, 2024, the Louisiana Senate Judiciary B Committee unan­i­mous­ly vot­ed to advance a bill that would remove nitro­gen hypox­ia from the state’s avail­able meth­ods of exe­cu­tion. Introduced by state Senator Katrina Jackson-Andrews, Senate Bill 430 is sup­port­ed by the Jews Against Gassing Coalition, an orga­ni­za­tion con­sist­ing of Jewish Louisiana res­i­dents who oppose state-sanc­tioned gas exe­cu­tions. ​“We rec­og­nize, of course, that the gassing of inno­cent vic­tims in the Holocaust is quite dif­fer­ent from exe­cut­ing a con­vict­ed crim­i­nal,” said Naomi Yavneh-Klos, a mem­ber of the coali­tion and Loyola University pro­fes­sor. ​“But for Jewish peo­ple, and real­ly any­one with knowl­edge of the Holocaust, the his­tor­i­cal asso­ci­a­tion with this exe­cu­tion method is chill­ing and unde­ni­able, elic­it­ing a vis­cer­al response that evokes not jus­tice, your goal, but genocide.”

Nitrogen hypox­ia was quick­ly approved for use in Louisiana in a spe­cial leg­isla­tive ses­sion called by Governor Jeff Landry last month. During this same ses­sion, the leg­is­la­ture also adopt­ed elec­tro­cu­tion as a method of exe­cu­tion, while pass­ing secre­cy laws to pro­tect those involved in car­ry­ing out an exe­cu­tion and the pro­cure­ment of any materials needed.

Mirroring the efforts of many oth­er Jewish com­mu­ni­ties, the Jews Against Gassing Coalition has spear­head­ed local efforts to stop ​“the State of Louisiana [from] uti­liz­ing a method sim­i­lar to the method of exter­mi­na­tion used by Nazi Germany to anni­hi­late mil­lions of [their] Jewish ances­tors.” In 2022, the ACLU of Arizona, on behalf of Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix, sued the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry (ADCRR), ask­ing the Maricopa Superior Court to rule that the use of cyanide gas vio­lates the Arizona Constitution’s pro­tec­tion against cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ments. In 1992, Arizona vot­ers large­ly vot­ed against the use of lethal gas for exe­cu­tions, but those sen­tenced to death pri­or to the rever­sal date fell under the old law which per­mit­ted lethal gas as an exe­cu­tion method. ​“Under no cir­cum­stances should the same method of exe­cu­tion used to mur­der over one mil­lion peo­ple, includ­ing Jews, dur­ing the Holocaust be used in the exe­cu­tion of peo­ple on death row,” said Jared Keenan, a senior staff attor­ney at the ACLU of Arizona. ​“Arizona has acknowl­edged the hor­rors of cyanide gas as a method of exe­cu­tion and elim­i­nates it in all but a nar­row set of cas­es — it’s time the court elim­i­nates the use of cyanide gas for exe­cu­tion once and for all. Regardless of where peo­ple stand on the mat­ter of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, it’s clear that use of the bar­bar­ic prac­tice is cru­el and must be abolished.”

Arizona’s last exe­cu­tion by cyanide gas took place in 1999, when the state exe­cut­ed Walter LaGrand. Those who wit­nessed Mr. LaGrand’s exe­cu­tion report­ed watch­ing an ​“ago­niz­ing and excru­ci­at­ing” scene in which it took near­ly 20 min­utes for him to die. Since then, just one indi­vid­ual nation­al­ly has been put to death using gas. In January 2024, the state of Alabama exe­cut­ed Kenneth Smith for a 1998 mur­der-for-hire using nitro­gen gas. According to media wit­ness­es, Mr. Smith ​“writhed vio­lent­ly” on the gur­ney before ​“gasp­ing and strug­gling for air.”