Baton Rouge, Louisiana - Louisiana is poised to resume executions – including via nitrogen gas – after a 15-year pause.

Louisiana's Republican Governor Jeff Landry announced Monday that the state's Department of Public Safety and Corrections had implemented an updated protocol enabling the sentences of people on death row to be carried out, including through nitrogen hypoxia.

Experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council have denounced the use of nitrogen gas as an execution method, noting it "may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or even torture."

Nevertheless, the Louisiana state legislature last year passed legislation to expand execution methods to include nitrogen gas and electrocution.

Landry's Democratic predecessor, John Bel Edwards, had opposed the death penalty – a stance the current governor clearly does not share.

"For too long, Louisiana has failed to uphold the promises made to victims of our State’s most violent crimes; but that failure of leadership by previous administrations is over. The time for broken promises has ended; we will carry out these sentences and justice will be dispensed," Landry said in a statement on Monday.

"I expect our DA's to finalize these cases and the courts to move swiftly to bring justice to the crime victims who have waited for too long."

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has backed the move to resume executions. "In Louisiana, we have the death penalty and we intend to use it," she posted on X.

Murrill told the Associated Press she expects at least four people on death row to be executed in 2025.

DeSoto Parish District Attorney Charles Adams filed a motion Tuesday requesting to execute Christopher Sepulvado on March 17.

Sepulvado, who is 81 years old and in a wheelchair, was convicted in 1993 of murdering his 6-year-old stepson by hitting him on the head with a screwdriver and then submerging him in a bathtub of scalding water.

"Chris Sepulvado is a debilitated old man suffering from serious medical ailments. He is confined to a wheelchair, he falls frequently, and his heart and lungs are struggling to keep working," his attorney, Shawn Nolan, shared in a Tuesday statement.

"He spends his time serving his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and trying to help others. There is no conceivable reason why 'justice' might be served by executing Chris instead of letting him live out his few remaining days in prison," Nolan added.

"Governor Landry wants to score political points by killing an old man in a wheelchair. Really??" Promise of Justice Initiative posted on social media.