The state of Louisiana implemented a method of execution this month that advocates describe as cruel and unusual. 

Jessie Hoffman’s execution was the first carried out in Louisiana in a decade and a half, and it is the first to employ nitrogen hypoxia within the state. Hoffman was a 46-year old Louisianan native who had spent 26 years on death row. 

Nitrogen gas has been used only four other times to execute a person in the United States — all in Alabama, the only other state with a protocol for the method. Hoffman was executed due to the abduction, rape, and murder of 26-year-old Molly Elliot in 1996. 

“Justice does not require the taking of another life,” said Sister Helen Prejean, a longtime advocate for abolishing the death penalty and author of the best-selling book “Dead Man Walking.”

In the days leading up to the unprecedented execution, opponents to the death penalty and Hoffman’s supporters rallied in a last-ditch effort to change the governor’s mind. The rally, held outside the Governor’s Mansion, revolved around finding peace, justice, and abstaining from the death penalty in the name of God. 

At the time of the rally, Hoffman’s lawyers were working to appeal his death penalty.  

The Promise of Justice Initiative hosted the event with speakers coming out to address the crowd, including members of Jessie’s family and other families who have lost loved ones to violence. 

August Bay, a Loyola religious studies junior and native New Orleanian, has been anti-death penalty their entire life. 

“We’re all God’s creatures, in a way, and we have no right to play God,” said Bay, one of numerous Loyola students who attended.

Hoffman’s cousin and son both spoke at the rally. His cousin was tearful in asking for an appeal of his sentence. Hoffman’s son, Jessie Smith, said his father was a different man than how the media has portrayed him. 

“My words at the rally reflected a message of compassion, the dignity of every human life, and the belief in redemption,” said Lindy Brasher, a minister for social justice to men living on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

“I stood in solidarity with those calling for an end to the death penalty and offered prayers for Jessie, his family, the victims’ families, and all those impacted by violence and the justice system,” she said. 

Louisiana officials maintain that the method is painless and say it is past time for the state to deliver justice promised to victims’ families after a decade and a half hiatus of executions. Attorney General Liz Murrill said she expects at least four people on Louisiana’s death row to be executed this year.

“At the rally, I prayed not only for Jessie Hoffman but also for the victims of violence and their families, who bear wounds that only God’s grace can heal,” Prejean said. “Their pain is real, and justice is necessary.”

In an attempt to appeal his death sentence, Hoffman’s lawyers said that using nitrogen gas is unconstitutional, violating the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. 

“Catholics say they’re pro-life, but what they mean by pro-life is pro-innocent life. And when you’re walking with a human being to execution, they’re rendered completely defenseless, and we deliberately kill them,” Prejean said. “Where’s the dignity in that kind of death?”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.