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.

"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,

Louisiana’s first execution using nitrogen gas is set to move forward as planned after a federal appeals court overturned a lower judge’s ruling Friday.