BATON ROUGE — State officials on Wednesday told a federal court that while an inmate scheduled to die from nitrogen hypoxia in two weeks hasn't exhausted every challenge to Louisiana's death penalty procedures, he is unlikely to win them and should still go to his death.

Lawyers for Jessie Hoffman went to U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge last week, saying the inmate hasn't had meaningful access to Louisiana's death protocols and noting that the state doesn't even allow veterinarians to euthanize cats and dogs by gassing them.

Attorneys for the state say Hoffman cannot demonstrate Louisiana has access to a suitable alternative method of execution or that the state would violate his rights by administering nitrogen to him as he performs Buddhist breathing exercises. 

Hoffman, who is scheduled to die March 18, suggested that Louisiana use either a firing squad or a drug mixture to kill him in a way that would be less painful. 

Louisiana's lawyers say nitrogen gas should render Hoffman unconscious within seconds and that a firing squad would actually leave him in pain for a longer period of time. They also say the drugs he suggested for a lethal mix aren't available because pharmaceutical companies will not sell Louisiana material to kill its condemned prisoners.

Hoffman was convicted in the death of New Orleans advertising executive Mary "Molly" Elliot. She was kidnapped and robbed, then taken to St. Tammany Parish, where she was raped and shot dead execution-style in 1996. She was 28.

A hearing is scheduled for Friday.