Lawmakers bidding to resume Louisiana executions after 14-year pause OK new death penalty methods

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Bidding to resume Louisiana executions after a 14-year pause, the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature gave final passage to a bill Thursday to add electrocution and the use of nitrogen gas as means of administering the death penalty.

The legislation comes one day after the country’s most recent execution in Texas and a failed attempt in Idaho, both by lethal injection. The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Jeff Landry, a tough-on-crime Republican who has signaled his support for the measure.

Amid ongoing challenges over obtaining lethal injection drugs, Louisiana’s bill follows in the steps of other reliably red states that have expanded their execution methods — from firing squads in Idaho to the newest method of oxygen deprivation via use of nitrogen gas in Alabama.

Proponents of expanding execution methods say it’s past time for Louisiana to uphold “contractual obligations” between the state and victims’ families after a death sentence has been handed down in court. They say this bill is a tool to once again carry out executions. Opponents, however, questioned the legality of the proposed methods and have argued that new methods could violate legal protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

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