Judge blocks Louisiana's 1st nitrogen gas execution over possible 'pain and terror'

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A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked what was to be Louisiana's first execution by nitrogen gas, ruling that the largely untested method could cause the inmate "pain and terror."

Chief District Judge Shelly Dick's ruling came just one week before Jessie Hoffman, 46, was set to be executed by nitrogen gas at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola on March 18 for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 28-year-old accounting executive Molly Elliott in 1996.

Only four inmates have been executed with nitrogen gas in U.S. history, all in Alabama last year and this year. All the inmates in that state chose nitrogen gas over lethal injection and the electric chair, while Louisiana made the decision to execute Hoffman using nitrogen gas after experiencing difficulties obtaining drugs for lethal injection and because the state "has no readily available electric chair," Dick said in her ruling.

Hoffman has shown a "substantial likelihood” of proving that nitrogen gas executions violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, Dick wrote.

She cited accounts from all four of the Alabama executions that "describe suffering, including conscious terror for several minutes, shaking, gasping, and other evidence of distress."

The witnesses observed the inmates' bodies "writhing" under their restraints, "vigorous convulsing and shaking for four minutes," heaving, spitting, and a "conscious struggling for life."

Additionally, Dick called out Louisiana for initially refusing to make their execution protocols for nitrogen hypoxia available to the public and for later only releasing redacted protocols the day before she held a hearing on the matter.

"The obfuscation of the protocol by the State is deleterious to the public’s interest," Dick said in her ruling. "The United States Constitution is simply the government’s promises to its citizens. The Eighth Amendment is the government’s assurance that no citizen will be punished by means that are cruel and unusual."

She said that Louisiana cannot execute Hoffman until a trial is held examining the merits of the case, and a final judgement is issued.

"The public has paramount interest in a legal process that enables thoughtful and well-informed deliberations, particularly when the ultimate fundamental right, the right to life, is placed in the government’s hands," she said.

Hoffman's attorneys, Louisiana react to ruling

A spokesman for the Louisiana Attorney General's Office pointed to a one-sentence response to the ruling posted on X: "We disagree with the district court’s decision and will immediately appeal to the Fifth Circuit," Attorney General Liz Murrill wrote.

The office did not immediately respond to an additional request for the state's response about the constitutionality of the method. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has defended the method as “constitutional and effective.”

Hoffman's attorney, Cecelia Kappel, said in a statement that "we look forward to the opportunity to continue presenting the court with evidence proving that this method risks inflicting torture on Jessie at the time of his death."

"We are grateful that the district court carefully considered all of the evidence presented and recognized the significant risks to Jessie Hoffman's constitutional rights posed by Louisiana's new and untested lethal gas execution method," Kappel said.

The Rev. Jeff Hood, a spiritual adviser who witnessed Alabama's first execution by nitrogen gas in January 2024 and described it as "torture" said in a statement Tuesday that "Lucifer didn't win today."

"Judge Shelly Dick has heard the cries of those of us who have actually witnessed a nitrogen hypoxia execution," he said. "Let there be no doubt, nitrogen hypoxia is one of the cruelest and most unusual forms of punishment to ever exist."

What was Jessie Hoffman convicted of?

Molly Elliott left work at her advertising firm in the French Quarter of New Orleans around 5 p.m. on Nov. 27, 1996, and walked to the Sheraton hotel garage where she parked her car. She was supposed to meet her husband at his office at 5 p.m. so they could go out to dinner together, police told reporters at the time.

Hoffman, who was just 18 years and had worked at the garage for about two weeks, kidnapped her at gunpoint and forced her to withdraw about $200 from an ATM, prosecutors said. Even if Hoffman had let her go at that point, prosecutors said it would have been "the most horrific night of her life."

"The ATM video tape shows the terror on Ms. Elliott’s face as she withdrew money from her account, and Hoffman can be seen standing next to his victim," prosecutors said in court records.

After getting the cash, Hoffman forced Elliott to drive to a remote area of St. Tammany Parish as she begged him not to hurt her, prosecutors said, citing Hoffman's eventual confession to the crime. Hoffman then raped Elliott and forced her to get out of the car and walk down a dirt path in an area used as a dump, prosecutors said.

"Her death march ultimately ended at a small, makeshift dock at the end of this path, where she was forced to kneel and shot in the head, execution style," they said. "Ms. Elliott likely survived for a few minutes after being shot, but she was left on the dock, completely nude on a cold November evening, to die."

Her husband identified her body after it was found on Thanksgiving Day, prosecutors said.

Hoffman contended that he didn't rape Elliott because she had "offered herself to him" and said she was killed after his gun accidentally went off. A jury rejected those arguments, convicting Hoffman of first-degree murder and recommending that he be sentenced to death.

Hoffman's family have not responded to Paste BN's requests for comment.

Executions in the US so far this year

The U.S. executed six inmates this year as of Tuesday, including the firing squad execution of Brad Keith Sigmon in South Carolina on Friday. On Thursday, Texas had been set to execute David Leonard Wood by lethal injection in the so-called Desert Killer serial case involving the murder of six women and girls in El Paso in 1987.

But in a rare stay, Texas' highest court issued a stay of execution for Wood without explanation. Wood had always maintained his innocence, and recently reiterated that in an hourlong interview with Paste BN. No DNA evidence connected him to the killings, and he was convicted largely on circumstantial evidence.

Hoffman's execution in Louisiana was just one of five originally planned in the U.S. next week.

Arizona is set to execute Aaron Gunches by lethal injection on Monday. In back-to-back executions Thursday, Oklahoma plans to execute Wendell Grissom, and Florida plans to execute Edward Thomas James, both by lethal injection.

Louisiana also was set to execute Christopher Sepulvado by nitrogen gas on Monday, but the 81-year-old inmate died from what the state said was natural causes.