An 81-year-old death row inmate who was convicted of the brutal murder of his young stepson died one month before he was scheduled to be executed by the state of Louisiana, according to local

Sepulvado was Louisiana's oldest prisoner on death row at 81. "The idea that the State was planning to strap this tiny, frail, dying old man to a chair and force him to breathe toxic gas into his failing lungs is simply barbaric,

Sepulvado was sentenced to die for the 1992 murder of his 6-year-old stepson, Wesley Allen Mercer, whom authorities said was beaten and scalded to death. The boy’s mother Yvonne Jones was convicted of manslaughter in the death and served more than seven years in prison.

Sepulvado, convicted in the 1992 killing of his six-year-old stepson Wesley Allen Mercer, had been on death row at Angola for over 30 years.

The state has never used that method to execute a prisoner. The last time an inmate was killed by a firing squad was in 2010 in Utah.