Fifth execution by nitrogen gas in the US

The fifth execution by nitrogen gas in the US state of Louisiana for a black prisoner sentenced to death was carried out on Tuesday, local time.

According to Sky News, the death sentence of Jesse Hoffman Jr., a 46-year-old American prisoner, was carried out by the hypoxic nitrogen method (asphyxiation with nitrogen gas) in the state of Louisiana.

This is the first execution by nitrogen gas in the state of Louisiana and the fifth in the entire United States.

Execution by hypoxic nitrogen had been used four times before in the state of Alabama to carry out the death sentence.

Hours before the planned execution, a state district court judge rejected an attempt by Hoffman's lawyers to obtain a temporary pause. Gov. Jeff Landry, who signed a bill last year making nitrogen hypoxia a legal alternative to lethal injection, did not intervene.

Tuesday evening, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a last-ditch effort to intervene in a 5-4 vote. Hoffman's lawyers argued Monday that the method violated his constitutional rights, including his ability to practice his Buddhist religion in his final moments.

Hoffman, 46, said he began practicing Buddhism in 2002 and used meditative breathing practices to calm his anxiety in prison. But by putting him to death using nitrogen hypoxia, which involved placing a mask over his face and having him breathe only nitrogen while depriving him of oxygen, an anticipated "sense of suffocation" would be "incompatible" with his right to religious exercise, according to his lawyers.

More than 50 prisoners are on death row in the US state of Louisiana. The state's attorney general has said he expects at least four people to be executed this year.