Several activists who oppose the death penalty gathered at the chapel within Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church Friday morning to show reporters what it is like to wear the mask typically used for nitrogen gas executions around the country.

Rev. Jeff Hood, a priest at St. Oscar Romero Old Catholic Church, joined other activists from Death Penalty Action and the Execution Intervention Project. They lamented that Arkansas has become another one of a handful of states that allow for death row prisoners to be executed by nitrogen gas.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed Act 302 in March, and it went into effect Aug. 5.

With the new law, Arkansas joins Louisiana, Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi in legalizing the use of this method of execution. During a nitrogen gas execution, a respi

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