Jessie Hoffman Jr., now 46 years old, was sentenced to death for the 1996 abduction, rape, and killing of a woman in St. Tammany Parish.

A death row inmate in Louisiana who is scheduled to become the first person in the state to be executed using nitrogen gas has asked for his capital punishment to be carried out using a more “humane” method.

Lawyers for Jessie Hoffman, a Louisiana death row inmate scheduled for execution on March 18, are asking a federal judge to halt his execution, arguing that the secrecy surrounding the state’s use of nitrogen hypoxia violates his constitutional rights.