Louisiana resumes executions after 15 years, issues first protocol for nitrogen hypoxia
CBSN
Louisiana will resume executions after a 15-year hiatus, forging ahead on plans set in motion last spring to carry out death sentences using nitrogen hypoxia.
The office of Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry released a summary of the state's updated execution protocol on Monday alongside a pledge to move forward with the death penalty for the first time since 2010. There are currently 63 people on death row in Louisiana, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, but legal challenges, political opposition and problems obtaining lethal injection drugs have kept the state from actually executing people for more than a decade.
"The time for broken promises has ended; we will carry out these sentences and justice will be dispensed," Landry said in a statement. "I expect our DA's to finalize these cases and the courts to move swiftly to bring justice to the crime victims who have waited for too long."
