BATON ROUGE — A St. Tammany Parish judge has scheduled a condemned killer to be executed March 18, the day after another man convicted for a separate murder will be put to death. They could be the first two people to die in Louisiana by nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method state lawmakers and Republican Gov. Jeff Landry approved last year.

The Louisiana Illuminator reported last week that Judge Alan Zaunbrecher with the 22nd Judicial District issued a death warrant for Jessie Hoffman, 46, whom authorities said brought Mary “Molly” Elliot, 28, to a rural portion of St. Tammany Parish and raped and killed her in 1996.

Separately, a judge in DeSoto Parish issued a death warrant last week for Christopher Sepulvado, 81, setting his execution for March 17. Sepulvado was sentenced to die for the 1992 death of his 6-year-old stepson, Wesley Allen Mercer.

Attorneys for both men on death row are challenging the execution orders, which could impact the timing of their deaths. The attorney general's office said last week that more death row prisoners could be set for execution this year. 

Rebecca Hudsmith, a federal public defender for Louisiana’s Middle and Western districts, is representing Hoffman in his capital case. Hoffman, who was 18 at the time of Elliot’s death, suffered through a traumatic childhood and should serve a life term instead of facing execution, she said in a statement.

“Jessie suffered horrific abuse and neglect as a child and was forsaken by all those entrusted with protecting him,” Hudsmith said. “Jessie has worked hard to overcome the trauma. He is a father with a close, loving relationship with his son, who he helped raise from prison. He has become a valued and stabilizing presence at the prison.”

Sepulvado’s attorney, Shawn Nolan, said his client’s failing health makes carrying out the death sentence pointless. Sepulvado has several medical conditions that add risks to his execution that could be considered cruel and usual punishment, Nolan said in a statement. The octogenarian was recently hospitalized after he fell at Louisiana State Penitentiary, which his lawyer said has happened repeatedly, and the prison’s medical staff intends to provide him with palliative care.

“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,” Nolan said. “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.”

Louisiana hasn’t put anyone to death since 2010, when Gerald Bordelon waived his right to appeals and received a lethal injection for the 2002 rape and murder of his 12-year-old stepdaughter, Courtney LeBlanc.

Subsequent death sentences have been paused because the state has not been able to obtain the prescription drugs needed to carry them out. Pharmaceutical companies that once produced the lethal mixture have backed out of production under pressure from capital punishment opponents.

Landry propelled local prosecutors into action on their long dormant capital cases on Feb. 10 when he announced he had officially established state protocol for nitrogen hypoxia executions.

Rapides Parish District Attorney Phillip Terrell obtained a death warrant that same day for Larry Roy, convicted in the 1993 murder of his former girlfriend’s mother, Rosetta Salas, and her ex-boyfriend, Freddie Richard Jr. Roy’s execution was set for March 29, but that order was recalled when defense attorneys notified the court Roy still had not exhausted his appeals.

Terrell has said he intends to submit another request to schedule Roy’s execution.

Louisiana would become the second state to use nitrogen hypoxia to carry out the death penalty, joining Alabama, where four men have been executed using that method since it was adopted there last year.