On Tuesday evening the Supreme Court refused to stop the execution of Jessie Hoffman, Jr. in Lousiana. It was the first execution in the state in 15 years, and it was the disgusting decision of Jeff Landry, the MAGA governor.

The request for a stay of execution made its predictable way to the Supreme Court where the fake Catholic justices made their predictable decisions to put Hoffman to death, highlighting the ongoing and never-ending hypocrisy which with religious wingnuts live their lives. These ersatz Catholics are all about denying medical care to women because MUH RELIGION, but that same laser focus is missing when the death penalty rolls in. Fake ass bastards.

The one Episcopalian on the court, Gorsuch, raised the fact that Hoffman’s assertion that being suffocated to death violated the free expression of his Buddhist faith as it did not allow him the mindful breathing that is part of the Buddhist transition to death. But the Death Penalty Catholics were undeterred.

You might be thinking that death by suffocation might not just be a denial of Hoffman’s First Amendment right to the free exercise of his religion, but also a violation of The Constitution’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and you’d be right:

Hoffman’s death marks the spread of the controversial technique of nitrogen gas as a killing method. His lawyers had argued that the procedure, which involves piping pure nitrogen through a gas mask to induce fatal oxygen deprivation, would violate the prisoner’s constitutional rights by inflicting cruel and unusual punishment.

The four previous executions carried out using nitrogen in Alabama led to distressing scenes in the death chamber. Eyewitnesses reported that Kenneth Smith shook violently, and writhed and convulsed on the gurney.

There’s more awfulness:

Louisiana also faces questions about how it got hold of the nitrogen used in Hoffman’s execution. Last year, the Guardian revealed that three of the biggest manufacturers of medical-grade nitrogen in the US had put a block on their products being used in executions.

Airgas, Air Products and Matheson Gas all took steps to prevent their nitrogen from reaching departments of correction in death-penalty states.

Yet photographs put into the public record in ongoing litigation in Louisiana show that the corrections department obtained canisters of nitrogen gas produced by Airgas, in apparent contravention of the company’s strict rules. In a statement to the Guardian, Airgas said that it had been in direct contact with the department of corrections to affirm its position.

“Airgas has not and will not supply nitrogen or other inert gases to induce hypoxia for the purpose of human execution,” the company said. “We have not supplied medical grade NF nitrogen and the facility does not have any such cylinders owned by Airgas, according to our records.”

And his death was predictably awful, cruel, and unusual:

Reporters who were present at the execution described a prolonged and disturbed death. Hoffman was forced to breathe nitrogen for 19 minutes through an industrial-style mask while strapped to the gurney.

According to the Advocate, the reporters said that the gas began to flow at 6.21pm and Hoffman instantly began twitching. His head jerked and his hands clenched, with his last visible breath recorded 16 minutes after the procedure began.

Louisiana officials conceded that there had been signs of “convulsive activity”, with Hoffman moving and shaking as he died.

There has yet to be a description of state-sanctioned murder that isn’t nightmare inducing. It’s wrong.

Here’s some music about death row: