Under the state's new procedure, Hoffman will be strapped to a gurney and forced to breathe pure nitrogen gas through a full-face respirator mask. The protocol is nearly identical to that of Alabama, which became the first state to use nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution last year.

Louisiana's first execution using nitrogen gas is set to move forward as planned next week after a federal appeals court on Friday vacated a preliminary injunction granted by a lower judge. With a March 18 date hastily nearing,

"In sum, the district court didn’t just get the legal analysis wrong — it turned the Constitution on its head, by relying on an indisputably more painful method of execution as its proposed alternative,