BATON ROUGE — Louisiana will not execute death row inmate Todd Wessinger with nitrogen gas and will instead allow him to choose his method of execution, the state said in court filings Wednesday.

The filings show the state will allow lethal injection using pentobarbital and has already secured a supplier for the drug.

Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Gary Westcott noted in the filings that the state will receive the pentobarbital within 48 hours of an official request.

State attorneys wrote in their response to Wessinger’s lawsuit that "the reality ... demonstrates that Plaintiff’s lawsuit is not about avoiding pain but evading execution."

Wessinger was convicted of first-degree murder for killing two restaurant employees during a 1995 robbery in Baton Rouge. He has been on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola since his conviction.

His lawsuit challenges the state’s execution protocols for nitrogen hypoxia and a two-drug lethal injection, arguing both methods violate the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.