Louisiana Republicans reject Jewish advocates’ pleas to bar nitrogen gas as an execution method

By SARA CLINE
Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A conservative legislative committee in Louisiana has blocked an effort by the Jewish community to bar nitrogen gas as an execution method. Religious leaders, relatives of Holocaust survivors and representatives of a local coalition called Jews Against Gassing argue that the method invokes trauma from the Holocaust, specifically the use of lethal gas by Nazis to murder European Jews. Alabama was the first state in the nation to use the gas earlier this year. Since then, several Republican-led states have added the method, prompting a backlash by opponents who say it is inhumane.