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Louisiana says it has secured the lethal injection drug pentobarbital for Todd Wessinger
The state says it can get the drug fast
- 15 grams
- of pentobarbital the state paid a supplier to hold
- 48 hours
- for the state to get doses after a request
- 2010
- was the last time Louisiana used lethal injection
- More than 50
- inmates are on Louisiana's death row
Source: The Advocate
If you've followed the Todd Wessinger case, the state's position on lethal injection just flipped. Corrections Secretary Gary Westcott said in a sworn declaration Wednesday that Louisiana has paid a secret supplier to hold pentobarbital for Wessinger and can get lethal doses within 48 hours of asking. That could clear the way for the state's first lethal injection since 2010.
It's a turnaround. Before Jessie Hoffman's nitrogen gas execution in March 2025, a prison official testified that lethal injection wasn't viable because drugmakers might withhold other medication. Now, WBRZ reports, the state's filings say Wessinger can choose his method, and its attorneys wrote that his lawsuit "is not about avoiding pain but evading execution."
- Conviction: killing two former coworkers in Baton Rouge, 1995
- His claim: nitrogen and two-drug injection both violate the Eighth Amendment
- Alabama: nitrogen use on hold after seven executions
The state's stance on lethal injection shifted between March 2025 and Oct. 28
- March 2025Jessie Hoffman is executed with nitrogen gas, Louisiana's first execution in 15 years.
- June 20Westcott swears drug companies' restrictions kept Louisiana from getting execution drugs.
- Oct. 21State lawyer says pentobarbital is available, retracts it, then clarifies at a status conference.
- Oct. 28State says in filings that Wessinger can choose pentobarbital.
Sources: The Advocate, nola.com
Asked if he would switch from nitrogen if he could, Westcott said, "I would use nitrogen hypoxia every time. 100 out of 100."
