Two petitions opposing the death penalty and the use of nitrogen gas were handed over to Gov. Jeff Landry Monday. Together, they had around 35,000 signatures.
Jessie Hoffman Jr. scheduled to be executed Tuesday at Angola prison. This will be the first execution in 15 years in Louisiana. The state will be the second in the country to use nitrogen gas as a form of execution, next to Alabama, which has carried out four executions using the method.
”And every single witness who has seen one of those four Alabama executions, they come out and they talk about the horror that they watched a person go through. The loss of oxygen, the inability to breathe, and to be conscious of that when it's happening is horrific and it's torture,” said Abe Bonowitz, the executive director of Death Penalty Action who’s been described as the “Jim Cantore” of executions. He is also a member of Jews Against Gasing Coalition, and was one of many who attended a death penalty protest in Baton Rouge on Monday.
“We don't trust our government to come up with a good vaccine, or to tax us fairly, or to get the potholes filled, and we're going to trust them with the power to kill,” Bonowitz added.
Protestors also rang the Delaware Bell, the same one used outside of Delaware's execution chamber before the state’s supreme court declared the death penalty unconstitutional.
Brandi Melissa of Baton Rouge said it’s hypocritical of a pro-life state that mandates the Ten Commandments to be posted in the classroom to allow executions.
“ The Sixth Commandment said thou shalt not kill, and it doesn't have exceptions,” said Melissa.
Death Penalty Action also plans to gather outside of Angola prison hours before Hoffman’s scheduled execution.