BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — A Louisiana death row inmate filed a lawsuit against Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DPSC) officials, stating that the state’s method of execution is “cruel and unusual punishment.”
According to federal court documents, Todd Wessinger, 58, is suing DPSC Secretary Gary Westcott, Chief of Operations Seth Smith, and Angola Warden Darrel Vannoy, accusing them of violating his Eighth Amendment right.
Wessinger was convicted of a double murder in Baton Rouge in 1995, killing Stephanie Guzzardo and David Breakwell during a robbery. Wessinger was a former employee of Calendar’s restaurant who shot Guzzardo and Breakwell and injured another. By 1997, Wessinger was sentenced to the death penalty.
The federal filing states that Wessinger argues that nitrogen hypoxia can leave a prisoner conscious while being deprived of oxygen, causing severe suffocation, panic and other physical harm before unconsciousness…