Louisiana carried out its first execution in 15 years on Tuesday evening, using nitrogen gas to put a man to death for a decades-old killing. Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, with officials describing the execution as “flawless” after 19 minutes of nitrogen gas flow. This marked the fifth time nitrogen gas was used in the U.S., following four executions in Alabama. Three more executions, by lethal injection, are scheduled this week in Arizona, Florida, and Oklahoma.
Hoffman was convicted of the murder of Mary “Molly” Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive in New Orleans. Despite last-minute appeals to the Supreme Court, the execution proceeded. Hoffman’s lawyers argued against the use of nitrogen gas, claiming it violated the Eighth Amendment and infringed on his religious practices, specifically his Buddhist rituals before death. Louisiana officials defended the method as painless and emphasized the need for justice for victims’ families.
The execution protocol involved strapping Hoffman to a gurney and administering pure nitrogen gas through a respirator mask until his heart stopped. Similar to Alabama’s protocol, this method was implemented due to difficulties in obtaining lethal injection drugs. Previous executions using nitrogen gas in Alabama had caused involuntary movements attributed to oxygen deprivation.
The Supreme Court and a local judge declined to intervene in Hoffman’s case, leading to the execution proceeding as scheduled. Louisiana’s use of nitrogen gas for executions aligns with several other states, including Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and now Arkansas.
In order to resume executions, Louisiana’s Republican-controlled Legislature broadened the state’s approved methods of capital punishment last year to include nitrogen hypoxia and electrocution, in addition to the existing method of lethal injection. On Tuesday, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill permitting executions using nitrogen gas, making Arkansas the fifth state to adopt this method. Presently, Arkansas has 25 individuals on death row. The number of executions nationwide has significantly decreased in recent years due to legal challenges, a scarcity of lethal injection drugs, and diminishing public backing for the death penalty. Consequently, many states have either abolished or temporarily halted executions. A group of anti-execution activists gathered outside the rural southeast Louisiana prison at Angola on Tuesday afternoon, where the state conducts its executions. They distributed prayer cards featuring a smiling Hoffman and organized a Buddhist reading and “Meditation for Peace.” Attorney General Liz Murrill anticipates that at least four individuals will be executed in Louisiana this year. Prior to Hoffman’s execution, Murrill stated that “justice will finally be served” by carrying out his death sentence.
