Louisiana executed a man convicted of murder with nitrogen gas on Tuesday evening, capping a raging legal battle that ended with a gas mask strapped over the man's face in the Angola State Penitentiary death chamber.

Louisiana used nitrogen gas to put Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, to death Tuesday evening in the state's first execution in 15 years. Nitrogen gas has been used just four other times to execute a person in the United States — all in Alabama, the only other state with a protocol for the method.

Louisiana ended its 15-year death penalty hiatus Tuesday when it executed convicted rapist and murderer Jessie Hoffman with nitrogen gas. Hoffman, 46, was put to death at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola for the 1996 killing of 28-year-old Mary “Molly” Elliot,