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.

A New Orleans-area group decries the state’s efforts to use nitrogen gas to execute death row inmates because, members say, such a method echoes the Holocaust.

Lawyers for Jessie Hoffman Jr. argued that using nitrogen hypoxia to put him to death would violate his constitutional rights