Louisiana officials are asking a federal judge to dismiss death row inmate Todd Wessinger’s legal challenge to a looming execution by nitrogen gas, saying they will allow him to choose lethal injection and use a drug he previously argued would spare him suffering.
Wessinger, who was sentenced to death for killing two employees during a 1995 robbery at a Baton Rouge restaurant, filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s nitrogen hypoxia and two-drug lethal injection protocols, arguing that both risk violating the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment.
But Louisiana officials say they will use a single lethal injection drug, pentobarbital, if Wessinger elects that method. That voids his argument claiming the state is refusing to adopt a less painful alternative, the state said in court filings Monday…