(KLFY)– A Jewish organization out of New Orleans is fighting back against a new Louisiana law with the help of a state senator. They say an added way of execution in the death penalty is eerily similar to how Jews were killed during the Holocaust.
During Governor Jeff Landry’s special session on crime in February, the state passed a bill allowing two new ways to execute prisoners on death row: the electric chair and nitrogen gas. It’s the use of gas that’s striking a chord in the Jewish community.
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“It feels like this is not my state,” Jacquelyn Stern said.
Stern is part of a newly formed coalition called “Jews Against Gassing.” Their goal is stop nitrogen hypoxia, or nitrogen gas, from being used to execute death row inmates.
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“People who are not Jewish don’t have that visceral reaction that we have,” she added.
Millions of Jews were killed in gas chambers during the holocaust. Stern explains a sizable group of survivors settled down in New Orleans. While the Jewish population may be small in Louisiana today, she says there is a vibrant Jewish community.
“Of course, almost all of us have had someone in our family that was killed in the concentration camps. It does strike a chord that is very unpleasant and not okay,” she said. “It’s just intolerable for me and for other Jews.”
Stern said the group doesn’t oppose the death penalty, but instead, the group opposes the use of gas as a form of execution.
“I immediately flashed to the concentration camps. I have been in them, seen them, seen the gas chambers, and there wasn’t more than a second when I went straight to what I had seen, the gas chambers,” Stern told News 10.
She adds Louisiana does not have Jewish senators, and there was no one to represent Jews as the bill was passing. Senator Katrina Jackson-Andrews is now filing Senate Bill 430 To remove nitrogen gas as a method of execution.
“Hopefully there’s empathy for Jews who live in this state,” Stern said.
Right now, 58 people sit on Louisiana’s death row, though an execution hasn’t happened since 2010. At this time, none are scheduled, according to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections.
Alabama was the first state to execute a death row inmate using nitrogen gas in January.
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