Louisiana Judge temporarily prevents death by Nitrogen gas.

Alex Schadenberg

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Erik Ortiz reported for NBC news on March 11, 2025 that Chief U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick of the Middle Louisiana District temporarily blocked Louisiana's first execution in 15 years after lawyers for the condemned man argued a new method known as nitrogen hypoxia would violate his constitutional rights.

Jessie Hoffman Jr. who was convicted of rape and murder, was scheduled to die by execution on March 18 with the use of nitrogen gas. Hoffman stated that the use of a mask to deliver only nitrogen gas, depriving him of oxygen, "substantially burdens" his ability to engage in his Buddhist breathing practices and creates "superadded pain and suffering."

Dr. Philip Bickler, the chief of neuro-anesthesia at the University of California, San Francisco, testified that the sensation nitrogen hypoxia provides is "very similar to drowning."

"I think for someone like Mr. Hoffman, nitrogen asphyxiation would be a particularly horrible method, a really inhumane choice for an individual who has a history of PTSD," Bickler said.

Judge Dick decided that:

"The public has paramount interest in a legal process that enables thoughtful and well-informed deliberations, particularly when the ultimate fundamental right, the right to life, is placed in the government's hands," she wrote.

She said Hoffman cannot be executed until his claims are "decided after a trial on the merits and a final judgment is issued."

Why is this important to the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition?

Last September, long-time euthanasia activist, Philip Nitschke, carried out the first assisted suicide death using his Sarco Pod in Switzerland.

The Sarco Suicide Pod is sold to the public as an easy and pain free death. The Sarco is designed in a sleek manner to make it seem like a fashionable way to die. The Sarco pod causes death by releasing Nitrogen gas resulting in death within several minutes.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) , who support assisted suicide, described the death of Kenneth Smith, who died by Nitrogen gas, as a:

method that constitutes torture, violating international human rights treaties ratified by the U.S.

The ACLU then stated:

Veterinary scientists, who have carried out laboratory studies on animals, have even largely ruled nitrogen gas out as a euthanasia method due to ethical concerns. Authorities in the U.S. and Europe have issued guidelines discouraging its use for most mammals, citing potential distress, panic, and seizure-like behavior.

Death by Nitrogen gas is not acceptable for animals and is defined as a method that constitutes torture and yet Nitschke described the death as looking exactly as expected.